Welcome to the 2022-23 edition of the school magazine. I write this introduction at a time of reflection and change. The transition from the autumn term into the winter term, and the promise of spring beyond, always provides an opportunity to consider what these last twelve months of the school calendar have entailed for the King’s community.
There is no doubt that it has been another busy year of extra-curricular achievements, fun and academic successes from the talented and earnest pupils of lower, middle and sixth form.
Of these a few highlights to look out for: the superb Criterion Theatre production of Dorian, which brought King’s drama back to London’s
West End for the first time in 25 years; the inaugural King’s Arts Festival, including an exquisite recital with world-leading chamber musicians; our trips page, as this saw the return of overseas travel since the dreaded ‘virus’ took hold; read about our première at the French play festival, as well as the myriad of sporting successes from hockey, to rowing to cycling and the U15 rugby team, which demonstrate the versatility of these pupils to combine their academic prowess with their strength and endurance in their ‘fields’.
There is so much more to discover in this comprehensive issue and so I will let you find your own highlights and hope you enjoy reading and admiring the efforts and achievements of this 2022-23 King’s cohort.
Finally, we say a fond farewell to departing staff and pay tribute to Dr Kevin Ralley, a much loved and respected member of our community and who will be sorely missed by us all.
Miss M Kidwell - Editor
Xavier Cooke: It is almost one year since you joined King’s. What has been your favourite moment since joining the school?
Dr C: That is such a difficult question – there is so much I have loved….It has been amazing to start getting to know the community – pupils, parents, alumni and friends of the school – and there are so many day-to-day aspects of school life I have enjoyed being part of, from assemblies, clubs and fixtures, to lessons and the school gate.
One event that was a real highlight was the Partnership Production back in March. I loved seeing the students of different schools and ages work together; I could feel the connection they had built just from my seat in the audience. Best of all was the pure joy on all of their faces when everybody came on for a final ensemble song at the very end. The theatre was totally full of their parents, friends and teachers and there was not a dry eye in the audience. It was certainly a highlight, and very special to see what everyone had learned over the course of the project.
The Community Tea last Christmas was another great day. Elderly residents from the local area came together to celebrate, have tea and chat afterwards. Students, staff and the Friends of King’s were all involved and it meant so much to everyone. One guest said she hadn’t been to a social event in four years. I love how important community is at King’s.
XC: Those were definitely cherished moments
in the eyes of the students who took part as well. What – besides maybe lunches with the Captains of course! – would you say is your favourite part of your job as Head?
Dr C: I’d say it is the sheer variety of the role. Each day is different, and I get insight into all aspects of life here at King’s, whether it be school council discussions, developments in teaching and learning, or meeting family, friends, and alumni of the school. It’s a true privilege.
XC: What advice would you give to your 14 or 15-year-old self, if you were back in secondary school?
Dr C: Be comfortable being who you are –
that is the biggest thing I’ve learned. Understand what matters to you as a person – what you value – and stay true to yourself.You achieve everything through that.
XC: Last question: What are you most looking forward to before the end of this year?
Dr C: It has to be all of the end of term celebrations and festivities, with Sports Day, leavers’ events, Creativity Day, and the prizegiving ceremonies. It’s not easy for us to gather the whole school together in one space, so these community moments when we do are really special. We get to applaud achievements, enjoy being together, and celebrate the year.
One of the most exciting elements of the lower school restructure was the incorporation of the six senior school houses for the first time. Pupils entering the senior school (or coming together in year 8), were placed into a house that they will now stay in for remainder of their King’s careers. Weekly house assemblies, positions of responsibility and house socials allowed pupils to mix with different peers and interact with older pupils in the middle school and sixth form. House events immediately became one of the weekly highlights with dodgeball and bench ball starting the proceedings and the house song competition a wonderful, fun and inclusive way to finish the academic year in the final week of term.Top three placings for events were recorded on the screens around school with each house well represented. Chess, debating, music, charity events, cricket, rugby, football, hockey, basketball, board games, charades… the events catered for all and were hotly contested. Our thanks to all the lower school heads of house and pupils for making the first year a memorable one! Mr J Gibson
Alverstone has had a superb year, having won many house events, and consistently placing highly. Well done to all those involved, and I hope our year 7 carry this string of successes into next year. In the autumn term, we played House Frisbee, Benchball and Dodgeball. These were great to start off the year as every single pupil turned out in at least one event. House Chess followed, as well as House Spelling Bee, where yours truly won in a nerve-wracking contest. We also won House Swimming, and our year 7s won House Futsal; a great victory in one of the toughest events. On a more mental pursuit, we were good at board games, winning Articulate and coming third in Charades. Toby Ohta (Year 8) - House Chair for autumn term
During our time as house chairs of Glenesk, we partook in many fun house activities. These started with a mixture of dodgeball, bench ball and ultimate frisbee. These activities were enjoyed by all pupils and it brought both year 7 and year 8 together and they always came out with a smile on their face. No matter their ability, everyone got stuck in to each house event whether participating or cheering on Glenesk. Going into
We started the second half of the year on a high, coming second in both the House Maths Challenge and year 8 House Basketball. It was great to see so many of us take part in House Origami as well. We came second in the year 7 Live Draw, thanks to Eric’s great drawing of Miss Smart. Alverstone then went on to come second yet again in House Water Polo, and we went on to win both Cross Country and year 7 Tennis as well. Well done to everybody in Alverstone who has put in so much
effort throughout the year – it has really paid off, as shown by the number of events that we have either won or come second in. There is certainly now a high level of expectation for lower school Alverstone next year. A BIG thank you to Miss Smart for all her support and organisation - good luck to the incoming Alverstonians!
Oliver Hutton (Year 8) - House Chair for summer term
the second half of the year, the committee changed and new faces took on these responsibilities. As a house, we were successful in events like House Football, and in others we did not do so well in, but no matter the result, we were always humble and gracious. Finally, we joined together as a whole in
events like the Olympiad and House Song to end the year on a high. We wish the current year 7s the best as they shift to year 8 to teach the new year 7s about Glenesk’s winning mentality and to do that whilst enjoying themselves.
Kian Bhanji and Horatio Mackie (year 8)
As we started the year, I was hoping to become the first Layton house chair of the year. When I was told that I would be, I was over the moon. I was so ready to take on the challenges that Layton would face (such as Glenesk). The events resulted in us winning
Major managed to acquire many victories throughout this year, such as House Hockey, where the A team did not lose any games, and the B team managed to keep other houses scores lower by drawing a lot of their games. Another point is House Chess where board 2 and 3 did not lose any games and board 1 did not either. Major also won some of the House Board Games, as it has always been one of the stronger sides of the house. We also saw success in the House Song, with Count on Me by Bruno
a few but not too many, but as the year went on our goals did not all get met, and there were many events in which we did not do that well. Until.... House Rugby, with our elite team of Rory, Jonny, Sam and Anthony and many others, which resulted in a few wins but inevitably also a few losses. This put us in the middle of the table for the first time in weeks. Recently, we started to gain higher results in most events, and in the Sports Olympiad, Layton performed well..
Jakob Gordon (Year 8)
When I was given the role of Layton house chair in the spring term, I was thrilled and ready to take on a new challenge with more responsibility and leadership. It has been a wonderful experience working alongside Sam, Arran, Georges and Keeran, who have put a great deal of effort into being part of the House Committee. I was incredibly delighted to see some amazing results in house events including Basketball, Water Polo, and Live Draw. I was particularly astonished with our performance of Viva La Vida in House Music coming second place, although we deserved first! Also, it was great to see so many year 7s awarded their house badges after completing their King’s Firsts. I wish them good luck with everything that lies ahead as they kick off year 8 this September! And most importantly, a huge thanks to Mr Odling for being a fantastic head of house for Layton!
Abhigyan Mukund (Year 8)
Mars and will not forgot the moment when the judge announced us as the winner, and everyone in Major celebrating almost instantly.
It was also amazing to see a lot of people bringing house tops to events, and it was clear we were consistently best at this all year.
Thank you to everyone who participated in any house event (no matter the outcome), supported Major during the events, and to the House Committee throughout the year. They should be proud of what they have achieved. Best of luck for the current year 7s going into year 8, and we hope you continue to bring success to lower
school Major. We also have to say goodbye to the current year 8, going into fourth form, as they will be representing Major in the senior school. Shahyan Ali (Year 8)
In the first half of this year, I had the absolute pleasure of taking the role of the lower school Maclear house chair for the autumn term. I enjoyed the wonderful perks of this role, such as hot chocolate and a cookie with Dr Cotton, ringing the bell in lower school assembly and seeing the sheer determination of Macleareans in house events. I particularly liked egging on the house to participate in small yet important house events. It was a great experience having this incredible job and I am proud of how far our house has come since September. Chris Dunckley (Year 8)
It was an honour to represent Maclear as the house chair over an action-packed few terms filled with lots of thrilling competitions and interesting house assemblies! In the assemblies there was a feel of togetherness. After Miss Hunter had given us a mini-team talk to fire us up for Thursday’s events, we all held our breaths to see what game she had in store for us that day… Every Thursday, several boys wearing grey
Ihad an overriding feeling of excitement when it was announced that I would assume the position of lower school Kingsley house chair, but a sense of responsibility also fell upon me. The committee’s first objective was to get the house to know us a little better. We thought the best idea for this to happen would be talking about ourselves in an assembly. This seemed to be a success, with people now knowing what the committee was all about. Perhaps my most enjoyable task was to prepare an assembly which was run by the committee. Collectively, we decided to construct a general knowledge quiz, which proved to be a huge success.
At the start of the summer term, all committee members from all houses came together and had a delicious breakfast, in which we shared our experiences of the role. This was an extremely enjoyable activity, and it was nice to know that others too were enjoying their responsibilities.
I loved all house events, especially House Cricket, and I believe all houses found a nice balance between a fun, social activity, that also
headed off to the swimming pool, sports hall, concert hall, or the playing fields to take part in a variety of events including: House Art, Chess, Cross Country, Futsal and Spelling Bee – to name just a few! These were superbly designed to help the lower school pupils get to know each other while taking us out of our comfort zones and challenging us on new skills. Interactions during house events were friendly, though there was certainly a competitive atmosphere, which was especially felt during House Basketball!
I applied for the role of house chair because I was already obsessed with the colour grey and all the role had to offer me – whether that be
meeting with Dr Cotton and other house chairs to discuss how the school could move forward over the next few years, or leading the Maclear pupils playing Pictionary in house assemblies – it was all an experience I would definitely like to have again, and one I recommend to any of the year 8 pupils next year!
Abhigyan Mukund (Year 8)
struck a competitive edge.Towards the end of the year, our house song became our primary focus; we practised in assemblies as well as before our actual performance. The house chairs were also involved in a meeting with Dr Cotton, giving us an insight into how the school was run, but also what plans we had for the future.
This was an extremely gratifying year to end lower school Kingsley, but nothing would have worked out without the hard work and
commitment of Miss van Oosterom, whom we are sadly saying goodbye to at the end of the year. Thank you Miss.
Ayan Patel (Year 8)
This year was another brilliant year for Maclear and the first in a while to be properly unaffected by Covid. We have found success in many house events this year, achieving the most wins in the spring term to prove the haters wrong and show that we are a house that values winning as well as taking part. Most notably the fourth form have been quick to impress in their first year in the senior school, sweeping up wins in Table Tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, Tug-of-War, and Football to become the most successful Maclear year group this academic year. Three of our Five-a-side teams, fourth form, upper fifth and lower sixth, clinched runner up and it was wonderful to see year groups working together to achieve success in Bridge and Engineering. The sixth form girls have also been very impressive, showing high levels of enthusiasm, passion and commitment to the house in their short time at the school which has translated to successes with a win in Cross Country (where Kaitlin must truly be commended for carrying the house) and runners-up in Basketball and Netball.
Maclear continues to excel in the performing arts, with the thespians among us putting on a witty performance of Blackadder brought to you by Athena, Aniket, Niall and Josh, which may not have won but was surely a crowd favourite. We came runner up in sixth form and middle school House Speaking, although speaking as a member of the audience, Weimin’s speech on being the comedian, friendship and what it means to see your friends laugh was incredibly moving and a winner in my eyes. For music, Walter flaunted
his incredible voice in the House Music Finals and led our Battle of the Bands performance of Don’t Stop Me Now which was a true display of the formidable power of Maclear house spirit. In particular Walter wanted me to commend John, who played bass with an injured wrist, Athena, who stepped up to play drums for the first time, and Sam and Will for “nailing” their performances on guitar and vocals respectively. We may not have technically won but Dr Cotton requested the performance was shown in assembly so I think that shows who the real winners were.
Perhaps our biggest success though has been the levels of dedication the house has shown to our charity Perseid. Led by the phenomenal Greg (Freake cup winner 2022), Maclear has
constantly been on the ball with charity events. Most infamously this includes selling Krispy Kreme donuts to junior schoolers for what can only be described as a small mortgage. Greg, and other members of the Charity Committee have also organised Wellbeing Karaoke in the CHT which has been a rousing success amongst sixth formers. Personally I was so grateful to be able to visit Perseid this year and see the important work they do in helping children who have profound learning difficulties maximise their potential. It was also wonderful to have a representative from Perseid speak in a house assembly to explain how the £3,500 we raised this year has contributed to building a new on-site sensory room.
I must of course thank all the tutors for the support and guidance they give to all Maclear students, as well as their passion for inter-tutor group games and their dedication to sporting bucket hats. Those thanks even extend to the tutors (yes multiple) who have accused my tutor group of cheating (we would never) in particularly tight battles of Articulate and Pictionary! Unfortunately, as is inevitable, we have to say goodbye to some of Maclear’s most cherished characters. Mr Poole is leaving to become an entrepreneur - we hope he remembers us when he is the next Alan Sugar! Mr McGarey is moving down under to start a new life in Australia (watch out for the sharks), Mr Wheatley is moving to St Paul’s to become their head of History so he is naturally now an arch enemy. Luckily Miss Nahorniak is only leaving temporarily as she goes on maternity leave expecting twins! Best of luck!
Last but not least Miss Dawe will no longer have Maclear tutees but, of course, will be part of Maclear forever, whether she likes it or not. Once a Maclearite, always a Maclearite.
Finally I must extend a special thanks to Mr Josypenko and Miss Burke - undoubtedly the best house leadership duo there is - who have led the house constantly with gusto and good spirits and I know I’ll leave with fond memories of hearing about Miss Burke’s spontaneous vinyl record player purchase and playing blindfolded balloon blowing-up competitions, and Mr Josypenko always checking that I’m winning, and telling me that his best piece of life advice was to visit Puy du Fou in France (in case anyone was wondering).
I have enjoyed my time as house captain so much and am so grateful to have a house full of wonderful prefects and people behind me. From Walter, Greg and myself - good luck to the new team of prefects and Angus, Allegra and Niall as Maclear’s new leadership team!
Sienna Jacobs (upper sixth)
Everyone knows that Alverstone is, by far, the best house in the school, and what a fantastic year the crème-de-la-crème of King’s have had! So many brilliant events have taken place in the past twelve months, yet it would be unforgivable of me to ignore the highlight of the Alverstone calendar in 2022: the introduction of the Alverstone “Assassination” charity event. The aim of the Alverstone captains this academic year was to encourage cross year group cooperation and camaraderie, and I believe no other event showcased that desire as much as Assassination. Tutor groups ended up working together to eliminate other players, despite it being a single player game. I must say the teamwork portrayed by Alverstonians filled me with pride, even though my reign of terror during the Assassination game fell owing to tutor group cooperation! Nonetheless, not only was this game a roaring success that involved the entire school, including teachers (Ms Ramgoolam was a menace, albeit she did get eliminated by a fourth former in her own class – well done, Michael!), it also raised unbelievable amounts of money for Metabolic Support UK, over £1,000, so thank you to everyone who took part! Let’s hope this charity event continues as an Alverstonian legacy!
Although Assassination may have been the highlight of the year, it was by no means our only victory. With the pandemic finally becoming a thing of the past, our verdant spirit kicked off to a phenomenal start, with the Alverstone side displaying their supremacy through their success in Senior Cross Country, Senior Rowing and Senior Debating. However, it was not only the seniors who displayed their dominance in the house events; the Alverstone Challenge, a quiz put on by the lower sixth for the middle school, was also won by Alverstonians, with absolutely
no help from the prefects overseeing the event – how dare such claims be made! Another, always fantastic evening within the school year, was the House Plays Festival. An intriguing performance of Enron was directed and abridged by Lev Dormidontov, and the costume and set design of the Alverstone piece was amazing, therefore well done to all involved!
Not only did Alverstonians display their immense sporting and dramatic prowess, this year enabled their creativity to shine through too. The Christmas house assembly was an inter-tutor group gingerbread man decorating competition and the scenes created were incredible. Although some of the displays may not have been as festive as others, with there seemingly being a lot of gingerbread crime scenes, as well as a pretty large clean up ensuing for the prefect team following the mess of such creative masterpieces, I argue that it was the best assembly of the year. Alverstonian artistry was further displayed in the spring term assembly, with portraits of each tutor groups’ favourite upper sixth being created as a heartwarming farewell gift. With designs ranging from stickmen to a phenomenal portrait of Aidan O’Donnell, it was beautiful seeing such creativity from the house. My greatest thanks goes to our judges of both competitions: Mr Rendell, Mr Trapmore and Ms Lindsey-Noble. Without you, these events would not have been nearly as fun, and thank you for agreeing to judge such competitions, even if you may have only received the request through a late-night email from myself!
It is my firm belief that what makes Alverstone
the greatest of all the houses is our community spirit, and this would not be so profound if it were not for the Alverstone teachers. Thank you to all the tutors for playing such vital roles in the Alverstone family, and for encouraging your tutees to strive for such incredible house successes. A special thank you goes out to Miss James, who decided to retire her position as deputy head of Alverstone, and move to join the sixth form team. Thank you for all you have done for the house, in every single department, ranging from the house charity to prefects; coming from myself included, you have really been a phenomenal asset to the Alverstonian team. Yet, Miss James’s departure meant there was a new addition to the green team: I give my warmest welcome to Miss Ward as the new deputy head of Alverstone. You definitely made the right decision to move from Glenesk! I wish you all the best in your new role, and whilst our time working together was brief, from what I have seen, you will be the most amazing deputy head. And lastly, but by no means whatsoever least, thank you to Dr Squires.You are a fantastic head of house, and the 22-23 year was no exception. I much enjoyed our chats at the blue tie dinner, and simply thank you for all you have done for Alverstone, in all years past and all those yet to come.
I could not talk of the successes of this year without, of course, talking about my most incredible prefect team. Thank you to the red ties, to Aathi, Archie, Tyr, Bethany, Sam Scowen, Jonny, Alex and Dan. This house would have simply not run without your immense help with charity events, lunch duties and house events.
Thank you also to Emmanuel, for once again representing Alverstonian superiority by being one of the school captains; the eighth year in a row Alverstone has been in the top four. And finally, my greatest thanks to my vice-captains, to Sam Hoyes and Toby Weston. I could not have led this house without you, and I hope you are as proud at seeing just how much Alverstone has achieved under our leadership as I am. Further, good luck to next year’s co-captains of house, Catherine Chang and Tom Constantinou-Hickman, as well as vice-captain of house, Rory O’Hare. I am sure you will do an amazing job, although it will be hard to top our brilliance!
My final words to you is this: thank you Alverstone for such an incredible year, and for making my short two years at this school so memorable. I wish you the best in all your future endeavours. From the bottom of my heart, it has been an honour being your captain, especially your first female captain, and I hope this house continues to strive for the greatness it always has done. Thank you and goodbye, Alverstone!
Being a part of, and captain of, Glenesk has undoubtedly impacted my time at King’s in the best way possible. I believe Glenesk has four core values at its heart, those being; getting involved, giving back to the local community, building a personal sense of community within King’s and being kind towards each other.
Glenesk’s slogan #GetInvolved may feel overused to many of the students; however, it is important in encouraging them to step out of their comfort zone and to take risks, generating a sense of pride and satisfaction in every element
local community and this can be achieved in many ways throughout the year. Our three charity weeks this year have been a massive success, raising money for St Raphael’s Hospice. Our charity weeks never go unnoticed, as hordes of children flock to the cafeteria to support our famous Bacon Sales (kindly ‘cheffed’ up by Miss Cooke and Mr Davies), which are particularly delicious. We also run bake sales, with many students donating wonderful treats they have made to support the house’s efforts. An unforgettable fundraiser that Glenesk runs is the Wet Sponge Throw, in which
of the house they are involved in. This attitude has resulted in fully subscribed house events every Tuesday lunchtime. A personal favourite event of mine is the House Drama, and once again Glenesk pulled off a hilarious adaptation of The Breakfast Club, that was crowned “Best Ensemble” by the judges. This performance was superbly led by Caitlin and had some great acting from students ranging across several years. The house continued to show its creative flair in The Battle of the Bands, a performance thoroughly enjoyed by many spectators that filled the concert hall. Once again, this was an opportunity for different years to mix together and get to know each other better, and Thea did a great job organising and integrating everyone. There were also many sporting events that took place; Glenesk did particularly well in the Upper Sixth House Basketball, narrowly missing out on a win against Layton in an intense final. Other fun events included House Tug-ofWar, Netball, Spikeball, Football, Swimming and Ultimate Frisbee, with several triumphs from across the different year groups.
All Gleneskians pride themselves in helping the
students can buy a ticket to hurl a soaking wet sponge at the face of their teacher of choice. It is always a popular event, and the students take great pleasure in seeing the teachers soaking from head to toe, prepared to go teach their afternoon lessons. We are very lucky to have Miss Cooke oversee and organise every charity week and her efforts are greatly appreciated by every Gleneskian. She has organised two local litter picks this year as well as sorted through every corner of the school’s lost property (which is no mean feat) in order to make it as accessible as possible to all the students. The prefects have also done a great job, manning lost property at lunch and reuniting kids with their lost goods. Aside from giving back to our local community, the house is pivotal in forming a safe community within King’s. This strong sense of community is evident in every part of the house and is encouraged by the amazing pastoral system. Every tutor in Glenesk is approachable and kind, and they put in so much time and effort to get to know and welcome the students from the getgo. Some of my fondest moments at King’s are
from the house assemblies in which every tutor group comes together to take part in various activities (such as Easter egg hunts and quizzes) as well as celebrating the numerous and varied achievements of Glenesk students. Glenesk also make an extra effort to include every student by organising after-school sport socials and sending out a weekly newsletter, Out Of The Blue, that recognises all the great things that occur within the house on a weekly basis. There is no doubt that this sense of family within Glenesk shapes the students’ experience at school.
Lastly, the tone set by Mr Davies and Miss Cooke within the house embodies kindness and compassion. They are always smiling and happy to have a chat with anyone and everyone. Likewise, the prefects this year have set an impressive example for the younger years, being fully committed to the house and maintaining the
house spirit, no matter how busy their schedules may be. The house could not run without them and I am eternally grateful for all the hard-work they have put in and the support they have shown me throughout the year.
Looking forward to next year, I’m excited to see how Charlie, Adam and Ted will get on with running the house and I’m sure they will flourish in their new roles as leaders of the house. Glenesk really is a special house and provides students with so many opportunities to push themselves beyond their current capabilities. My advice: try everything at least once and make the most of your time in the house (it goes so quickly!).
Anna Farmer (uppersixth)
Triumph. Achievement. Benevolence. All key parts to the fantastic year Kingsley have had. With the aftermath of Covid-19 simply remaining as a distant memory to the Kingslothians, it was time for us to regain our unspoken title as the best house inhabiting our wonderful school. With Mr Cole and Ms Sanford at the wheel, we could not have been in safer hands to lead us towards this ambitious goal.
With the first half term presenting a Tottenhamsque trophy drought, the purple wave saw three second places and yet to win an event. With Spikeball being an evident Kingsley strength, our morale was shattered by two close seconds. Lower Sixth Tennis did certainly show promise, with our new recruits in the lower sixth girls’ cohort working incredibly well and showing good chemistry on the courts with the house event veteran boys. After a short two-week half term I think the entirety of Kingsley shared the same thought: we cannot let the likes of Ms Peele and Mr Grabowski hog all the glory. We wanted to do Mr Cole and Ms Sanford proud, so that when the heads of houses meet on a Tuesday morning over coffee and biscuits, there was something for MJPC to gloat about.
With fire in our bellies, similar to that of the 2008 US Olympic basketball team, we showed all the other houses that our half term did not go to waste. Countless hours spent on chess.com, practising our hockey flick shots, and working out the tactical advantages of being on the shallow end in water polo, in the run up to Christmas Kingsley had managed to achieve two firsts (in Water Polo and Hockey) and a shower of second
places. At this stage in the year, we had had two firsts and seven seconds, putting us with the third most wins and first most second places.
The Easter term was a time for more first places, (six of them to be precise), but also had a much more important element to it for Kingsley. With charity having always been an integral part of our ethos, it was time for our annual Purpolympics. With the event having been put on hold for the past three years, due to bubbling and other
Covid precautions, there was a lot of speculation regarding the event. With a fantastic, vastly equipped prefect team on the job, the event was, in one word, remarkable. The charity for Kingsley this year was the Sepsis Trust, a pilot project in England aimed at raising awareness about the signs of sepsis and the appropriate treatment route. Raising in the thousands, the event was also a great opportunity for the entirety of the house to come together and comically compete in
games such as three-legged races, egg and spoons, and a new favourite – the egg drop. A highlight of the event was seeing tutors carried around the track on the back of their valiant tutees who were simply breaking the rules to be closer to lifting the coveted Purpolympic trophy. Funnily enough the winning team happened to be Mr Cole’s, and considering Mr Cole was overseeing the scoring, there was a lot of wavering eyebrows when this was announced. The entirety of the eventincluding its planning, execution and enjoymentreally will go down in the Purple history books as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).
The Easter term also was an opportunity for Kingsley to embrace their creative side, and a fantastic performance of War Horse was put on, with excellent physical theatre employed. Once again, in terms of the judging of the “Best Play Award”, Kingsley were robbed. Although, keeping on the thespian note, the Purple Wave did take
home first places in both House Speaking, and the King’s improvisation event, House Line is it Anyway.
With exams in sight, and the summer fast approaching, the upper sixth and upper fifth turned their heads to revision. With the excellent academic support Kingsley offer, consolidation and revision classes were offered, and one-onone tutoring implemented, with the lower sixth students helping wherever necessary.
The summer term was our final chance to really show that Kingsley indisputably would hold the theoretical house event crown. With three more wins under the belt, at the end of the season for the summer term Kingsley were indeed at the top of the leaderboard, sadly with Major and Layton. Therefore, whilst Ms Peele and Mr Grabowski yet again somehow seem to take the glory, at least our lionhearted leader Mr Cole has ascended to their level.
Stepping aside from my overly competitive
nature, my favourite thing about King’s is that all houses have their own merits and unique quirks. While I like to think the house that I have cherished since fourth form is the best, one could argue individually each one could be. The support within each house, and the inter-year relationships that form are a wonderful thing that really does make our school unique. There is genuine care for younger students, and every tutor group does become, over the years, a makeshift family. I am truly going to miss my house, but the school especially. My years here have been instrumental to my growth, but also have left me with hundreds of lasting memories. I want to thank all my fellow Kingslothians for putting on such a good year of events and opportunities for the younger years, but I have every confidence in passing on the reigns to the incredibly competent lower sixth –do us proud!
Eddy Middleton (upper sixth)
There are few certainties in life but one of them is without a doubt that Major will always be the most passionate house. This year has been no different with what was another hugely successful year for the house. Striving for gold across all spheres of school life with unwavering enthusiasm Major has certainly earned their house colour, gold.
The year began in typical Major style with all the pupils demonstrating impressive physical prowess. We wasted no time with wins quickly stacking up in Lower Fifth Basketball, Lower Sixth Mixed Tennis, and Fourth Form Cross Country. The latter two events were particular highlights as the new members of the house wasted no time in expressing Major spirit. As the term continued, so did our successes with numerous wins across all sorts of events. House Art was a particularly great event to win as all the year groups came together and worked towards a single goal. Our victory in Senior House Speaking led by Dean Chaumoo and Thomas Yates, speaking to the entire sixth form, also cemented Major’s reputation for success in these events.
Elsewhere, our charity work was also running strong. The first term saw a host of fundraising events occur including the return of the Major hoodie sale, Make a Difference Day bake sale, home clothes day and Major Christmas cards sales. The hoodies in particular have become a common sight at house events and are always a sign of Major spirit. In total these initiatives raised £1,413 for our house charity, Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. A truly great way to start the fundraising for the year.
Following the Christmas holidays and in the new year we only achieved more success. There were many house event wins including Middle
School Water Polo, Lower Sixth Mixed Netball and House Online Chess. Major’s excellence in all types of events is the greatest testament to the variety of skills and talents its pupils possess. At this point in the year was the time for the much-awaited House Play Festival. With last year’s incredible success in this event, some might expect the Majorians to feel nervous. Despite this, they delivered an exceptional performance of The Giver led by Izzy Sermon, Theo Bonding and
directed by Zach Mohamed. With so many Major pupils across all year groups taking part, I know that it is a highlight of the year for many people. Considering how hotly contested this event is, two consecutive wins in the House Play Festival is truly a great triumph for the house.
Another highlight of the year was certainly the Charity Dinner and Auction. The lower sixth organised and delivered this event to the parents of the house, making it one of the most unique events of the year as it involved the wider Major community. The night was an overwhelming success with £12,702 being raised in a single night for Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. Other fundraisers included a lemonade and bake sale. These brought Major’s total money raised for the year to £14,500, a great achievement and display of Major spirit.
Over the course of the year there have also been numerous Majorian of the Moment awards handed out. Jamie Zeimueller and William James were both given the award in the autumn term for being selected as part of the National Youth Orchestra. Eloise Davis was also given the award for an exceptional performance in the Dorney Sprint Triathlon where she finished as a top female athlete under 20 years old. Mr Hatch was also awarded the Majorian of the Moment award for scoring 70% in his sabbatical language exam.
Later on in the year, two further awards were given to Luke Nunn for being selected to play in the National Children’s Orchestra and to Vikram Tandon for his excellent work with the Lower School Maths Clinic. Overall, it has been a truly great year for Major across so many aspects of school life and the icing on the cake was, without doubt, victory in the much-anticipated House Athletics on the last full day of term!
I would like to thank Eloise Broyden and Sofia Committeri for being exceptional vice-captains of house over the last year. They have been great role-models, always demonstrating incredible house spirit and leading by example. I would also like to thank all the prefects for their efforts in running the house over the year and for being a
joyful group to work with. To the incoming blue ties and prefect team: I wish the best of luck and I hope that they can lead Major to great success over the next year.
Finally, I would like to thank Miss Peel and Mr Reekes. As a pupil, it is often difficult to understand the kind of work that has to be done to ensure the smooth running of the house, but Miss Peel and Mr Reekes work tirelessly through sickness and health to make Major the house that it is. Running the house is a 24 hour job and they both do it with unwavering determination. It is clear for anyone to see that without them, Major would not be the house that it is today.
Hugo Plat (upper sixth)
Captaining Layton house for the 2022-23 school year has been a privilege, and it has been brilliant to see the participation levels across the year groups, with Layton having the highest participation rates among the other houses in the large majority of the house events. Further to this, not just the participation, but the commitment to the house events, whether it be sport, music, or drama, has been very impressive and I would like to thank each and every Laytonian for their efforts towards the house this year. In terms of house events, this year has been a highly successful one with a total of 18 wins and eight second places. The first win of the year came in mid-September with the lower sixth emerging victorious in the Mixed Tug-of-War. The dominance in Tug-of-War continued the week after with the upper sixth winning their Mixed Tug-of-War in fine style, with Sonny and Alex standing out and just across the field, the upper fifth Laytonians opened their account with a win in the Five-a-Side. The girls’ basketball team stormed to victory over a two-week period, with standout performances from Jess and Manu. A strong performance from the middle school Laytonians, in particular Reis, secured a second place in the Middle School Solo Music house event. Further victories in the Squash Doubles and Fourth Form Basketball concluded a successful first term, with this success set to continue for the remainder of the year.
The spring term saw multiple victories in many different events, ranging from academic, sport and music, illustrating the range of talent on offer throughout Layton House. The middle school maths team won House Maths convincingly, with
strong performances from Ishaan and Raahim. The football talent in Layton House is clear to see, producing wins in Five-a-Side for both the upper sixth and the fourth form as well as Layton storming to victory in the Senior House Football, with the latter being one of my favourite victories at my time at King’s. This house event comes at the end of the football term, and is always hotly anticipated and highly competitive. Going into the event, Layton were arguably favourites, led by a quartet of first teamers; Alex, Max, Leo and Niklas. However, the label of favourites didn’t deter us and didn’t lead to any complacency, as we comfortably beat Major, Maclear and Kingsley. A slight slip up against Glenesk meant that we needed a victory against Alverstone to be crowned champions. After a flurry of missed chances, the score remained 1-1 and we entered the final minutes with ten attacking and Alverstone defending for their lives. In the dying seconds, the ball was played in and after a few ricochets, the ball fell to me who slotted the ball home much to the delight (and surprise) of my fellow teammates. Raucous celebrations ensued and lifting the trophy on what was to be one of our last house events was a special feeling for all involved. Moving away from sport, the House Play and Battle of the Bands were performed to a very high standard by all involved. The House Play cast performed 2:22 and put on a brilliant performance in a very competitive field. In the Battle of the Bands, the band comprised Zac on the drums, Reis on the piano, Harvey and Sinan on the guitar, and the quite spectacular vocals of Phoebe, William, Lucie and Callum. The band performed a version of Bastille’s Pompeii and blew
the packed concert hall audience away, emerging victorious thanks to a breath-taking performance by all.
The summer term produced yet more victories, namely in lower fifth Spikeball, Senior Volleyball and a joint victory with Glenesk in Fourth Form Vortex. Some strong performances from the lower sixth secured second places in both Touch Rugby and Volleyball. Away from sport, Louis drew his way to a joint victory with Alverstone in Lower Fifth House Drawing. The fact that the victories have come from all year groups and in many different house events is refreshing to see and is indicative of the breadth of skills that the Layton community possess, and long may it continue.
I would like to end with a big thank you to Mr Grabowski and Mr Broderick for their tireless work in leading this fantastic house. Another thank you must go to my two vice-captains, Julian and Giselle who have both been incredible in helping me with the running of the house and forever coming up with innovative ideas and keeping me in check. Finally, thank you to the Laytonians that make this house the best around and it has been great to see the remarkable work that you all do. I wish good luck to the upper sixth Laytonians who are moving on, and good luck to those carrying the mantle of Layton house in the years to come. Seth Eley (upper sixth)
It was with huge excitement that King’s Arts was launched in June 2023. Our first ever five-day celebration of the arts brought an extra fizz of excitement and life to the school campus, as an array of performances, talks, concerts, exhibitions and workshops took place across the festival period.
It was our pleasure to host talks from King’s alumnus Professor Michael Scott and from journalist and author Anita Anand, while our vibrant exhibition of pupil art enjoyed a great many visits and King’s alumnus and painter, Jonathan Parker’s campus walking tour was a sellout attraction.
Adding another dimension to the celebrations, multi-award-winning artist Jeanette Barnes spent her pupil workshop imparting wisdom to lower fifth students, challenging them to create large studies based on her sketches of the school site.
A real festival highlight came when the massed choir which featured pupils from King’s and partner schools, as well as some King’s alumni, gave audiences of Ahoy! Sing for the Mary Rose a real treat of uplifting sea shanties and Tudor music. The Band Showcase got toes-tapping along to original songs as well as well-known favourites
and the junior school orchestra performed a fantastic concert, too.
Meanwhile, King’s dramatists presented three productions: the middle school doubleheader, The Government Inspector and Incident at Vichy took spectators from a fast-paced comedy of greed and stupidity to the claustrophobic world of Vichy France. The sixth form production adopted a different tone altogether with the captivating original piece, Scottie which was written by Caitlin Costello (upper sixth).
The festival’s closing day saw the return of our brilliant writer-in-residence, Sarah Govett. Sarah led a lively pupil-panel discussion about the chilling themes of dystopian fiction and, with fitting timing, hosted her last workshop with year 8 with whom she had been working since September. They pitched their final creative writing projects and took part in a dystopian novel book fair!
World-leading chamber musicians Raphael and Elizabeth Wallfisch together with Jack Liebeck and Simon Callaghan marked the climax of King’s Art 2023 with their fantastic recital. Those in attendance could not fail to be moved by the talent of the performers, who had led a series of invaluable masterclasses for King’s string players earlier in the day.
The concert provided the perfect ending to what had been an incredibly inspiring five days of artistic enjoyment.
ollowing on the heels of King’s Arts, energy and inspiration were flowing again on 3rd July as the whole senior school embraced this year’s Creativity Day. Pupils took part in an array of sessions which included everything from Art on the Common, creativity in organic synthesis and 3D psychology to digital sketching and mathemagic, while others tried their hands at baking, musical conducting, and beatboxing! The results of these endeavours were wonderful to see, with pupils engaging whole-heartedly in their workshops. One group summed up their experience with the reflection, “it feels exciting and fresh to work from behind a mask, and it allows you to explore creative ideas in a new way”.
No review of the highlights of the school year would be complete without mention of the amazing events organised by the Friends of King’s. This year’s firework event took place on Bonfire Night itself, and saw tickets sell-out at an unprecedented rate. Crowds gathered from across the local community to enjoy food, live entertainment and music performances, whilst the sky above the school was lit up with a spectacular display, courtesy of Toby Alloway (OK) and Titanium Fireworks.
Before November had closed, the community was coming together once more for the fabulous
Friends of King’s Christmas Fair.The event attracted over 2,500 visitors from all corners of the school community, the local area, and our partnerships communities too. Visitors flooded the site, soaking up the festive spirit amongst 80+ stalls offering everything from clothing, jewellery, accessories, and toys, to homewares, art, paper goods, and decorations, as well as an array of delicious food and drink.
This year’s event featured some brilliant entertainment and we were delighted to welcome
Harris Academy Wimbledon choir alongside other musical performances from King’s bands Thump and Regent and the junior school choir.
The event was a great success and also provided the student-led Pupil Outreach Programme (POP!) with an amazing opportunity to raise £3,000 for their selected charities.
Our most sincere thanks go to the Friends for all their exceptional work and dedication supporting the school and hosting all their many events throughout the year.
The 2022-23 academic year was a most productive one for work in the community through a wide range of partnership projects.
The community project programme on Friday afternoons enabled over 400 King’s pupils to take part in weekly activities with a variety of local schools and organisations, with over 2,000 partnership pupils taking part throughout the year.
During the spring term over 100 Wimbledon Independent State School Partnership pupils in year 11 attended GCSE reinforcement classes in Maths, English, German, Spanish, French, Biology, Physics and Chemistry taught by teachers from King’s on a weekly basis.
A number of events were run as part of the Senior Aspirations Programme for partnership school pupils who would be first generation university scholars. For example, in the spring, almost 100 year 9 pupils took part in a series of five workshops led by the Globe Theatre about The Tempest, followed by a visit to the theatre to see a performance of the play. One pupil said, “It taught me to never underestimate the power a single word can have” whilst another added,
“this project has helped me to speak more confidently”. Whilst during the summer term this year group took part in academic workshops focusing on creative writing, Chinese, Music and Engineering led by King’s pupils and staff.
Year 11 pupils attended a presentation by Royal Holloway University of London to learn more about possible courses, discover about scholarships and understand more about a campus university.They also took part in workshops led by Pathways, covering different routes into higher education, including degree apprenticeships.
At the end of the academic year the Open Doors Project took place. This involved 120 pupils from four primary schools taking part in sports and 60 from two primary schools devising a theatrical show, The Four Seasons. The project was led by student leaders from King’s and two partner secondary schools, with the final performance and tournament attended by parents and teachers. Here are some details about a few of those community projects run by King’s pupils:
Mr P Hatch
The Art for the Community Production project is a small group of King’s pupils who have worked diligently over the past year to help students from Bond Primary School create beautiful props for the community production. Together with a group of 30 Bond pupils, we created a large fish, a giant squid, and many smaller props. The King’s pupils also created two albatrosses, utilising a range of different mediums from paint to sewing. On the night of the production, we played a key role in stage management, ensuring the production ran as smoothly as possible.
This project has been beneficial in allowing us to gain experience working with younger children.
Each week we developed leadership skills, through directing different activities; we have learnt how to problem solve, working with the director of the play as well as with the DE department.
The Bond pupils have gained confidence in different aspects of art, learning techniques in painting and collage, looking at how different colours work together as well as the overall composition of the props. While the King’s pupils may have guided the Bond pupils on the colour palette, they definitely decided the final design for the props, showing their independence. Otto Pilbrow and Saskia Sierra (both upper sixth)
Every Friday, we went to Southmead School to run a book club with year 6 pupils. In the first term we read A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, an emotional thriller which triggered lots of discussion amongst the pupils. In the second term, it was Who Let the Gods Out by Maz Evans, which was a funny fantasy novel, and was very enjoyable to go through with the children. Book Club is a fun and rewarding community project as you can build relationships with the pupils, and see their reading develop. I would recommend this.
George Tobin (lower sixth)
Our CCA this year has given us the opportunity to deliver science-based workshops on life style and infectious diseases and forensics, to year 7 and 8 at a variety of schools across Merton. To get inspiration for these workshops we visited the Museum of Human Diseases at St George’s University hosted by Dr Carol Shiels (curator and senior lecturer). This allowed us to create our first lesson, “Lifestyle and infectious diseases” where we explored the diverse breadth of pathology
in human anatomy, ranging from a cancerous lung to tapeworms. We then participated in a workshop led by Dr Shiels, where we identified surgical instruments and their uses, and compared organs which had undergone different diseases.
Back in Merton, well prepared, we entered
At Merton Abbey Primary School we delivered Book Club to the children of Triumph Class, who were in Year 4. The books we read included Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Ghosts and The Butterfly Lion. The children were always extremely enthusiastic upon our arrival. Every lesson we would do some group reading to encourage the pupils to become more comfortable reading to their friends, and then did an activity to stimulate their imagination. They had varying levels of reading ability, but we ensured that they could feel confident and read at their own pace, and it was inspiring to see them develop over the year. As a sixth form pupil, it helped me to develop important communication and problem-solving skills with younger children and it was an amazing experience being able to bond with them which is a unique aspect of this community project and is what makes it so brilliant!
Zac Wilson (lower sixth)
the classroom, where around 30 children awaited our sessions.We were able to work in small groups and tried to deliver lessons where there was a range of fun and engaging activities, as well as interesting information for the children to learn about that would extend their scientific knowledge. When introducing ourselves at the beginning of the workshops, we always included a fun fact and told them what we wanted to study at university, hoping to inspire them and teach them the possible careers in science. We are looking forward to continuing this CCA next year and cannot wait to create new workshops!
Jemima Richmond Caunt (lower sixth)
This year we have been working with students from Wimbledon College, Ricards Lodge, Cricket Green, Coombe Girls’, Bond Primary, Perseid School and Raynes Park High to create a collaborative piece based on John Milton’s epic Rime of the Ancient Mariner. On a weekly basis, groups worked with a different school across a range of year groups to each devise a section of the story before all coming together for a joyous night of performance. It was an incredible way to connect with the local schools and offer expertise and facilities they might not otherwise have had access to.
Reflecting on the process, many of us felt that the most rewarding part was watching pupils participate so enthusiastically, contributing a wealth of ideas and impressing us all with their ability to challenge themselves. A notable example was a pupil who learnt the lines and blocking of a missing actor in what seemed like three minutes on the day of the performance! Many showed an increase in confidence and collaborative skills, which was incredible to see develop as the production went on. As directors, we felt that inclusion was the most important thing and letting all who wanted to speak be heard. Often many of the quietest voices had the best ideas. Together with our incredibly hard-working creative director Mr Trapmore, we transformed the 200-year-old tale into a colourful and deeply entertaining piece of theatre which we hope
enthused all the participants to continue Drama further.
This production offered a fantastic opportunity to engage pupils in Drama, something we are all extremely passionate about; to create art together: singing, dancing, playing and improvising and which culminated in a wonderful celebration to a highly appreciative audience. We are looking forward to another successful community production next year.
Alex Silverwood-Cope (lower sixth)
Drawing Together is an artistic co-curricular program with the aim of helping children in the surrounding schools by teaching, learning and connecting “together” through different art styles. The children learn about history of art, as well as having a go at replicating the great artists of the past and present.
We visited over seven different primary schools this year with the aim of encouraging children to explore their imagination and express themselves through different art forms, with an emphasis on fun. This year it has been run by five sixth form pupils, including myself, who have a passion for art and want to share it with others. All pupils were encouraged to create colourful paper cubes – inspired by the patterns and colours
in artworks by artists such as David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, and Claude Monet.
A benefit of the program is that it helps to promote the value of the arts in the local community as well as the importance of the arts in child development, including fostering creativity, imagination, and self-expression. During the project we learnt to take charge, make decisions, and manage resources effectively. These skills are invaluable in many areas of life, including education, employment, and personal relationships.
Drawing Together is a fantastic initiative and I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this project for the past two years, gaining valuable teaching experience and developing my leadership skills. Jonathan Dunckley (lower sixth)
Our aim was to create all the practical sets and props that the children of the partnership production would need to use whilst on stage. The team had what felt like endless props to make - from a massive albatross to fish and sea monsters - and the tightly-knit group worked away week after week as more and more requests kept flooding in. It was a fast-paced, joyous experience.
However, the crowning jewel of our work was the albatross – a 2 metre-long prop bird that could even flap its wings! We used wire to make a frame for the body before covering it with layers of paper and PVA glue. We then sent it up to Art for a paintjob whilst continuing our work on the albatross’ wings, using connected wooden panels attached to poles to allow for a flapping motion. Once everything, including the wings, had been painted, we finished off by assembling everything. This all makes it sound incredibly straight-forward and simple, but it really wasn’t! Trying to get the wireframe to look even vaguely like an albatross’ body was
tough work and trying to get the wings to move well also took plenty of trial and error. However, despite the struggle, we ended up with a beautiful prop albatross that looked magnificent on stage. We learnt so much whilst building it: we had to work effectively as a unit, bouncing ideas off each other and it was, of course, a great way to sharpen up on our DE skills.
Friendship Hour is a project involving local elderly residents who visit King’s every Friday to share tea, sandwiches, and conversation with pupils. It really is a two-way system in that the King’s pupils learn invaluable life lessons thanks to the wisdom of our guests who are always keen to share anecdotes and experiences. For our guests, it is a great opportunity to feel the warmth of the King’s community (which they would otherwise not have) and encourages discussion based around intergenerational topics, games and even the occasional musical performance!
As a pupil I feel this CCA has been a great opportunity to improve my conversational and social skills. The experience I have gained from communicating and building relationships with the guests has provided me with invaluable maturity and sociability which I can take with me beyond school life.
It is impossible not to feel the overwhelming fulfilment that comes from sharing our experiences and offering companionship and connection and realising how much we all have in common. Jack Furber (lower sixth)
(lower sixth), Alex Walker (lower fifth), Fraser Burdett (lower sixth), Varun Vijayarajah (upper sixth), Mr Broderick
Our sixth form have enjoyed meeting and getting to know lots of the year 8 cohort at Coombe Boys’ School. Every week they have played Maths games and completed Maths questions in small groups. Some of the boys’ favourites have been “Times Tables Snakes and Ladders” and “Angles Bingo”. The boys have also on occasion enjoyed teaching our sixth formers some magic tricks with a pack of cards. The sixth formers have built really positive relationships with year 8 and have been sad to say good bye as they progressed up to higher Maths sets. We look forward to working with Coombe Boys’ School again next year. Miss L Cooke
Every Friday afternoon, a dozen pupils from lower fifth to upper sixth have led action-packed sports sessions for years 5 and 6 pupils from the local Ronald Ross primary school. This is their PE session for the week.
We started each session with a “Joe Wicks” style warmup, then launched into a circuit of different sports activities designed to help the pupils improve their overall coordination and turn them into well-rounded sportspeople.
For example, one group of pupils would practice throwing and catching technique through a cricket-based game, whilst others would focus on agility and fitness. This would all culminate in bigger games such as football rounders, where students would have to apply all their new skills. I can honestly say that this CCA was one of my highlights each week at school. It provided such a great opportunity for King’s pupils to develop valuable experience
in leadership, planning and communication. I would like to use this opportunity to thank Mr Davies and Miss Alexander for making this possible, as well all the Ronald Ross staff, and finally the pupils, who took part in all the sessions with incredible enthusiasm and will hopefully be able to continue to build on all the skills that they practised this year.
Ryder Bisset (lower sixth)Over the past year, the Partnership Choral Directors have worked with many different schools, including Coombe Girls’, Raynes Park High and primary schools across Merton.
The five pupils in the team learnt and taught a range of songs to fit with the theme of The Ancient Mariner. These ranged from the popular sea shanty The Drunken Sailor to the classic hit What a Wonderful World, as well as other pieces including the jazz standard This will be. Perhaps the highlight from the production was the whole company singing Viva La Vida as the finale.
We thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with pupils from other years, both from our CCA and from the other schools. During the process we first learnt the pieces ourselves as well as invaluable skills such as conducting, which we got to utilise in the final productions. We then went to each school individually and helped the students to be confident and brave in their singing. All the hard work came together at the end to form a great production and it was a wonderful opportunity to engage with the wider community, whilst enjoying singing in perfect harmony.
In the summer term, we embarked upon the
new challenge of teaching the animated collection of songs called Ahoy! to primary school pupils in Merton. We had to ensure we adjusted our teaching techniques to effectively guide the younger children. Overall, this experience was truly unforgettable and helped us develop skills
which we will be able to transfer to other aspects of our future lives.
Arvind Benedict & Alfie Edmondson (lower fifth)
Lucie Lindsay & Allegra Zeier (lower sixth)
Over the past year, 12 students, including myself, have had the opportunity to teach PE to a group of children at Hollymount Primary School. Every Friday after lunch, we walked to the school and ran two sessions for two separate groups. During these sessions we would run a variety of fun games for the children in the Hollymount playground. The project aimed to get the kids moving, improve their fitness and to spark an excitement in sport that may last a lifetime. There would be running, jumping, and some activities involving throwing or kicking of balls, which are important skills for a lot of sports they will hopefully partake in as they get older.
Personally, this activity has had a very positive impact in developing my teaching skills, improving
my ability to empathize with and then aid the kids when they have conflicts with others, or have perhaps injured themselves. I found myself and my peers adapting very well to the challenges of organising and explaining new games to the pupils, with everyone doing their part to make sure all were enjoying themselves. As a group we all were challenged weekly to not only creatively devise new games but also to evaluate what type of activities they seemed to enjoy and ensure that every week was a continued success.
I think overall we helped reinforce a positive relationship between Hollymount and King’s that will hopefully enable further community projects in the future.
The Hollymount Team
The primary aim of Games at Bond Primary School, Mitcham is to organise games sessions including football, basketball and various other sports. It is comprised around 10 students from upper fifth to upper sixth who take complete leadership of planning and orchestrating sessions for the year 4 pupils. Therefore, a crucial aim of the project is fostering friendships with the pupils and acting as role models.
Undoubtedly, this project has yielded a wealth of positive impacts on King’s pupils. The exposure it has given us to people from a plethora of diverse backgrounds has increased our awareness of different cultures. Furthermore, interacting with pupils much younger than ourselves has improved our communication and ability to relate with different people. Most importantly, the friendships
with the younger pupils have made Friday CCA something to look forward to all year. Emmanuel Adeyemi (upper sixth)
The Engineering CCA this year has involved tutoring groups of 2030 students from the local Pelham Primary School in Wimbledon. We have taught them a course called VEX Robotics, which is designed for young children to learn about the principles of programming and robotic engineering. We had to design lesson plans tailored to their skill levels.
The project has been extremely rewarding for us – taking a more senior role in creating and delivering the lessons has helped us build confidence in our teaching and presentation skills and lead a small team. We have also built confidence in our ability to improvise and deal with situations that we had not already prepared for, such as when students started to work faster than we had imagined.
We also believe that the project has been great for the community as these children, who otherwise would not have been able to explore coding in this way, now have the chance to potentially find a future academic or career path. The pupils who initially were less enthusiastic were noticeably more enthused by the end of the sessions. Some particularly relished the opportunity to put their knowledge of robotics into practical use when we had them participate in a “cat and mouse” game with the physical robots.
Jonathan Martin (lower sixth) & Enrico Berchicci (lower fifth)
In the autumn term, the Friday Afternoon Blues Project teamed up with year 6 pupils from Merton Abbey to prepare for a collaborative concert. This was a rewarding process, made more so by the pupils being so happy to see us each week, and their eagerness to share thoughts about our material and experiment with improvisation. During the concert, attended by the Mayor of Merton, we interspersed arrangements from classic jazz legends such as Roy Hargrove and Art Blakey with small groups of Merton Abbey pupils’ varying unique adaptations of a 12-bar blues piece.
This concert and the journey towards it were not just learning experiences for the younger pupils. We King’s pupils learnt to manage groups, developed our teaching skills, and extended our own musical literacy. Overall, the project and concert led to an unforgettable journey for all involved. Harvey Bloomer (lower sixth)
During our spring term CCA rehearsals we also prepared to perform at the King’s Jazz Club. For us, it was a great evening. We had the opportunity to work as a band, improvising in front of a crowd, as well as hearing other jazz pieces from various King’s ensembles.
Iona Ratnayake (lowersixth)
The finale of this year’s project was a workshop for 120 year 4 pupils from local primary schools who joined the group for a memorable afternoon of jazz improvisation, singing and rhythm work. Many thanks to the musicians from the Blues and Roots ensemble who helped make this such a memorable and joyous event.
Mrs S WisemanAt Poplar Primary, we aspire to help educate the year 6 children by teaching a variety of topics in order to expose them further to the vast scope of Mathematics. Some of the topics we have covered include: angles, binary, simultaneous equations, prime numbers, ciphers and Game Theory. Our goal is to help develop problem solving skills and support the students with mathematical topics that they may struggle with, as well as providing an opportunity for extension beyond their school curriculum. We believe that student teaching at Poplar Primary has been an amazing learning opportunity for both the Poplar pupils and ourselves, giving the King’s pupils a chance to share their love for the subject whilst also working on their leadership and organisational skills. Not only have we learnt how to adapt our plans in a classroom environment, we have also worked on improving our sessions each week by learning from the last. It’s been a joy to see
the pupils’ confidence grow, and we hope that we’ve sparked a passion for a subject we all enjoy very much.
Edward P (lower fifth) and Keira A (lower sixth)
Our CCA this year has focused on helping to improve the skills of pupils who do not necessarily have English as their first language. This has truly been a privilege for us - not only through being able to feel as if we have been making a positive impact on the lives of the children we teach, but we have also enjoyed forming real bonds and friendships with them over the course of the year.
The children themselves, the majority of whom have only recently arrived from countries such as Ukraine, Brazil, and Somalia, have all improved immensely in their abilities to communicate in English over the last year, and have hopefully had fun doing so too, as we have. We would like to think that we have made their transition to life in England at least a little easier, which is the ultimate goal of this community project, with many having been through such difficult circumstances and challenges to get to where they are today.
Thank you to both King’s and St Mark’s for this chance to contribute to our community!
George Beal (upper sixth)
This year, we taught beginners’ Latin to year 6 pupils from Knollmead Primary School. Our main aim was to help build a better understanding of languages to support their other learning by focussing on literacy. Instead of looking at more complex grammar, we helped them to recognise derivations and patterns with a weekly quiz at the start of each session. We used the Minimus textbooks to guide our topics and plans for the lesson, incorporating the storyboards as a group reading and translating exercise. We also wanted the lessons to be enjoyable and create an interest in Latin and the ancient world through storytelling - bringing a new myth, such as Perseus and Medusa, to each lesson.
After first meeting the pupils, we realised there were many gaps in their understanding and our main challenge was finding various entertaining ways to fill these gaps within the short lesson span of 45 minutes. This required us to experiment with different teaching styles, including starter quizzes to refresh the pupils’ knowledge of the previous lesson and encouraging the class to repeat grammatical ideas out loud in unison to reinforce their memory.
It was a spark in everyone’s week to see the pupils and to experience unforgettable highlights where we bonded with them. Classical myths, like Echo and Narcissus, were retold with great enthusiasm, providing children with an opportunity to learn new English vocabulary, as well as discover the culture and literature of ancient Romans. This also honed our ability to narrate the stories with gusto.
I’m absolutely sure that the pupils enjoyed the programme as much as we did. We hope that they will remember us as their teachers and that they may look back on the lessons as the time when their interest in Roman culture and the ancient Latin language was sparked.
“docendo discamus”
“let us learn by teaching”
The Knollmead Latin team 2022-23
The Music Composition Friday CCA is, as the name suggests, a group of pupils from a variety of year groups diligently collaborating to produce written music for the annual community production.
As well as encouraging the participation of King’s pupils in the project, music composition often entails collaboration with other schools, and this year we worked with Coombe Girls’. It is safe to say that this integration proved very successful. The aim of music composition is not simply to produce music to underscore a play, but rather to showcase to the participants the importance of collaboration, patience and compromise; for often multiple pupils are tasked to work on the same piece, which usually leads to conflict of ideas.
This project has had an undeniably positive impact on the King’s pupils who have taken part. They have come into every Friday afternoon with joy and enthusiasm. The environment created in music composition has been that of kindness, compassion and understanding. Whether stressed about exams or upset with
a friend, the session has been consistently shown to be a great way to unwind on a lesson-free Friday afternoon and simply enjoy the way that music brings us all together.
Our work in the composition group was essential for the success of the community production. The music that was performed live by those participating in the CCA really brought the play to life, as well as complementing the hard work of all the other involved partnership programs.
Science Displays has been a joy to be a part of for all of us involved. It required us to tailor specific science experiments that would capture the attention of and inspire a different group of year 5s week on week. We wanted to make sure that experiments we did were accessible at a level which everyone would understand and enjoy, hence, we created the overarching theme of Harry Potter which we thoroughly enjoyed reading and watching when we were in year 5. After each experiment we would then explain the science behind the magic, making it both informative and entertaining. Watching their jaws drop as they saw a bright blue flame erupt from the belly of a large plastic jug as we all chanted ‘Expecto Patronum’ was the highlight of every week.
In order to ensure that our performance was as enjoyable as it could be, we spent the first
few weeks of the year meticulously planning out the experiments we would perform. We brainstormed a plethora of experiments and whittled it down to 10, after which we decided the theme of Harry Potter. Then we split the experiments into four sections: potions, charms, transfigurations and defence against the dark arts. We divided ourselves into pairs, sat down and wrote our scripts. The following weeks were spent fine tuning with a lot of peer review and helpful advice from the teachers.
Immersion into the world of Harry Potter helped to maintain the attention span of the year 5s. Therefore, we felt that costumes would play a big part in doing this. From the Sorting Hat to movie-accurate wands, we scavenged all the Harry Potter memorabilia we could find (thank you, Mr Renwick). A highlight was Zakee (upper sixth) playing the role of Professor McGonagall pulling off the performance of a lifetime week on week and cracking up all the students and teachers present. The audience participation and curiosity were vital to our performance running smoothly and we honestly feel like we genuinely made an impact on most of the pupils present. Many of our favourite moments were speaking to them after and hearing phrases such as ‘we wish our science lessons were as enjoyable as this’ or ‘I want to study here when I’m older’ made us very content with the job we had done.
The Science Display Team
It has been a fantastic year for the Army section: we remain the largest section in the contingent and had the gift of fifteen upper sixth cadet instructors. Although each year group has undergone training, the section has focussed on creating troop camaraderie. Twenty-four lower fifth cadets donned the Royal Tank Regiment cap badge for the first time and have since learnt about uniform, our affiliated regiment, completed basic courses in first aid and navigation and developed skills on the parade square. Their first field exercise took place in October where they learnt about camouflage and concealment, shelter erection and cooking in the field. After Christmas they began rifle training and impressed with their determination to pass the final weapons handling test. In Activities Week they completed their first live shoot on a 100m range at Sandhurst Military Academy and many finished the year having achieved their Basic Star award.
The upper fifth have expanded their skillset under the guidance of Mr Philips with a focus on fieldcraft and leadership. They have learnt how
to establish a harbour area, duties of a sentry and completing a section attack.The cadets rose to every challenge and we are thrilled that four cadets elected to take part in the inaugural Fast Track NCO Cadre qualification this summer. With the prospect of promotion, it is great to hear cadets keen to continue.
The lower sixth completed the leadership cadre and now take the baton as senior NCOs. They have learnt how to prepare and deliver lessons and are ready to teach younger year groups.The upper sixth have been fantastic since September and have taught with commitment, enthusiasm and good humour; we are thrilled to know some will join the OTC at university.
The King’s cadet contingent take Armistice Day very seriously and this year was no different. In addition, and only a few weeks prior, we were prematurely in front of the Great Hall steps for a memorial service to the late Queen Elizabeth II. This was a very special event to mark a phenomenal monarch and reign.
The spring term CCF inspection was the culmination of hours of preparation and a wonderful opportunity for the contingent to show off to Captain O’Connor all we are doing. The Army section performed a first aid and field craft demonstration, skill at arms lesson, DofE presentations and so much more.
Two highlights have been the intertroop drill competition in January and annual summer Army camp. Drill is a skill cadets acquire as part of their training and an intertroop drill competition, formally scored and judged, was a great way for cadets to learn from one another. Different approaches ensued from sweet bribery in Dreadnought to Badger troop using “divide and conquer” to manage lively lower fifth charges. Badger nailed their execution of a whole troop “about turn on the march” and were crowned 2022 Intertroop Drill Competition champions. Finally, Army camp was the climax of the year and made possible by the dedication of Lt Painter. The four-day exercise to Hankley Common saw cadets experience pairs firing manoeuvres, an ambush and a section attack. We are indebted to the support of two regular RTR troops that made the exercise one to remember, particularly the final section attack.
A huge thank you must go to the outgoing upper sixth cadets and all Army section staff for their efforts this year.
In the Easter holidays, a long journey was made to the Peak District, where a group of sixth form cadets were to spend five nights, for a Gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition. After arriving, we spent the rest of the first day planning our routes and getting a kit check (waterproof hoods now included) before getting an early night. We woke up to our only overcast morning and the hardest mapwork of the whole expedition, which seemed to simply be finding the way out of the hostel! After reaching the top of an initial steep climb and following the path to Mam Tor, the views that followed were worth the effort. We continued along the ridge for the rest of the day before dropping down into Hayfield to our first campsite. Initially starting the next day in high spirits, now with brilliant sunshine and a scenic walk along the River Kinder, we soon discovered that the paths had been eroded due to previously heavy rain, leaving a grassy bog which we struggled through over the course of the afternoon. Upon reaching the campsite (read: field), we experienced the joys of trying to sleep on a slope without rolling down the tent, and trying to stay warm in -3°C! The poor conditions had reawakened a previous injury for one of our group, and so with one man less we pressed on with better weather and scenic nature. The last day was much easier as we could see the end of the route (on the map at least), and this gave us the mental strength to push through. After an impromptu roundabout debrief with our supervisor Spike, presenting on the human effect on the natural landscape we had researched over the expedition, we pushed on to the finish line, arriving back at school with some aching legs, good memories and valuable skills.
Able Seaman William Taylor (lower sixth)
“On 10th November, the school hosted a Trafalgar Night Dinner for cadets in the sixth form. This was to celebrate the 217th anniversary of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar over Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve’s Franco/Spanish fleet. Throughout the evening, we had speeches by the senior cadets, a three-course meal, and several bouts of singing at the end to round off the night. This was an extra special celebration as not only did we celebrate the Battle of Trafalgar, but also celebrated the life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth following her recent passing. The evening was a resounding success which was enjoyed by all.”
Able Seaman William Taylor (lower sixth)
Leading Seaman Matthew Young (lower sixth)
This year has seen a return to form after the mayhem of Covid. There have been several major events this past year including the annual Trafalgar Night Dinner, DofE Silver and Gold expeditions, and most notably the return of the Biennial CCF Inspection. The year has seen a new cohort of 17 lower fifth join the ranks, who have made good progress in their training since the start of this year. The upper fifth have also continued their training under the guidance of the senior cadets, leading up to a final intersection competition where they put all their skills on display. The lower sixth began the year with personal leadership training which led to the running of the upper fifth intersection competition.
LS Henry Golder shares his account of the lower sixth personal leadership training, and upper fifth intersection competition: “The lower sixth cadets were taught by S Lt Grabowski about leading and teaching younger cadets. Key skills such as lesson planning and presentations were the focus, and we built up confidence in educating others. Chief Petty Officer McGaw visited in order to prepare the lower sixth for next year, when they will be the most senior cadets and will be expected to be running sessions for those in years below. They were instructed on how to build a rapport with students, command their respect, and convey instructions effectively.
Using the skills they learned, the lower sixth ran drill training and a command task for the lower fifth. They used this as an opportunity to prepare for next year. The group was split in half and were taught basic drill in addition to learning and completing a “Transfer at Sea”. After some
practice on the basic manoeuvres, the lower fifth began leading the drill. This early introduction to leadership provided them with some experience which will help them prepare for stepping into more senior roles in the cadets as they progress.
To round off the year, the upper fifth competed in an intersection competition. Small groups of lower sixth cadets organised activities such as rope stretcher races, a plank competition and tug of war. The exercises encouraged the use of teamwork, strength and skill, and the cadets approached it with great enthusiasm.”
The main event of this year was the Biennial
Inspection. King’s old boy and Royal Navy Captain Connor O’Neill was given a showcase of the entire CCF. It began with an inspection of the senior cadets before moving on to displays and presentations by all three sections. The RAF displayed aircraft models, flight simulators, and talks on aeroplane engines. The Army showed off their skill at arms and excellently demonstrated a patrol and inspection of an overturned vehicle.The Navy demonstrated the use of a field gun, as well as running a wargame, simulating a battle at sea between two teams of cadets in different locations,
and being controlled by a third team which orchestrated the movement and communication of the ships. Finally, the long-awaited intersection gun run which led to a solid victory for the Navy section. The inspection ended with an address from the Captain before he was invited for tea with some of the senior cadets. This was an excellent performance from the whole CCF and a great opportunity to show to parents what has been going on in the CCF over the last three years. This year has been a continuation of the ethos of courage, commitment, respect, and teamwork across the CCF.
Another successful year for the RAF cadets here at King’s with a plethora of exciting activities and opportunities to cover.
Firstly, there have been lots of new opportunities for the lower fifth cadets. Their introduction to the CCF at first fling was a great success, with cadets learning about camouflage, target spotting, food rations and basher building. The resounding favourite was ration pack cooking, where the cadets learnt how to cook with military cooking kits. The camouflage face paint may need some work but it was an enjoyable event for all.
The lower fifth also gained a greater sense of how an RAF base functions during their trip to RAF Odiham in Activities Week, which included many interesting talks by those that manage and work on the base. This visit culminated in a tour of the base’s armoury, a tour of a Chinook and an introduction to basic weapons training which we hope to build on in the coming year. Four of the lower fifth cadets also got to go gliding, one of the two sought after gliding trips this year (following an earlier flight in freezing December weather). This was especially exciting seeing as it was the first successful gliding trip since 2018. We hope to see more opportunities to get cadets in the air in the future.
Night Hike was, as always, a success. It is a highlight even though uptake this year was marred by other commitments. The cadets involved got fully into the spirit of the evening with many innocent ramblers suddenly being ambushed.
We have seen many new qualifications being earnt this year. All our lower fifth cadets achieved their first-class badges, first aid and radio qualification.The upper fifth passed their leading exams and explored fieldwork under the expert eye of Sgt Covington (on loan from the Army section).The lower sixth passed their leadership course and many achieved their MOI (Method of Instruction) Lanyards, signalling a handover of responsibility. Already they have done a sterling job organising a successful radio activity for both the Navy and RAF cadets.The section has also had some networking with other sections following
the leadership cadre at RAF Henlow in October with Cpl Butler-Cassar, LCpl Zee and I qualifying for instructor cadet, returning to the section with new inspiration.
This year also brought the challenge of a full inspection by Captain O’Neill, escorted by LCpl Zee. Sgt Austin-Foss led us from the front as our senior cadet, and we passed the inspection with flying colours, in part helped by our exceptional drill demonstration. Our senior cadets took command too, leading lessons on engines and principles of flight as well as leading team-based exercises with the other sections. Sadly, we did not win the gun run (definitely rigged), but we were definitely the loudest section with no enthusiasm lacking in our support of those competing, putting in a super shift overall.
Sadly, we must bid farewell to our exceptional upper sixth. They have done so much throughout their time in the section and kept everyone committed with their own enthusiasm and drive for fun. Sgt Austin-Foss, Cpl Parsons, Cpl Dick and LCpl Forbes, you will be missed. Big shoes to fill but I am sure the lower sixth will rise to the challenge and continue to both maintain and improve the RAF in the coming year.
See you all in September for more shenanigans and another exciting year.
With over 100 clubs running this year, the King’s community was kept busy. Here are some highlights from just some of them...
The senior Classical Society once again welcomed a plethora of world class visiting speakers to talk on a range of fascinating topics. In tandem with the Rossetti Society, the extravaganza kicked off with Dr Gail Trimble’s discussion of Virgilian roleplay in Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. Dr Trimble’s masterclass was a breathtaking introduction to Classical reception, inter-textual allusion, and literary gender play. Attempting to follow in those rather large footsteps was Mr Young speaking on the role of violence in the fall of the Roman Republic. Focusing on the figures of Tiberius Gracchus and Clodius, Mr Young explained how the Roman senate, by resorting to violent and undemocratic methods in their attempts to preserve republican values, in fact only accelerated the republic’s demise. Finally, Dr Ed Bispham delivered a masterclass on arguably the most vocal figure from Rome’s history: Cicero. It became clear through Dr Bispham’s talk that the self-appointed “pater patriae” had not been entirely honest in his presentation of his infamous foe and the threat he posed. Elsewhere, the Olympiad Translation and Recitation Competitions continued into their third
year, with some fantastic spoken performances of the verse of Ovid, Catullus, and Homer. The winners truly showed the value and underlying skill of ἔπ π – “winged words”. The inaugural lunchtime Classics Club saw middle school pupils exploring Classics in film, studying archaeological artefacts, and writing book reviews. Finally, the eighteenth annual Symposium provided a chance for sixth form pupils to further whet their ancient appetites and expand their Classical horizons. Dr Hannah Willey’s exploration of ancient citizenship examined a theme that is
WINNERS
Sixth form translation: Eddie Wang
Upper fifth translation: Niccolo Silvestri
Sixth form recitation: Thomas Yates & Weimin Khoo
Upper fifth recitation: Luca Branton-Speak & Jack Thomas
still of utmost relevance and importance, even now 2,500 years later. Pupils and staff then retired to the dining hall for a Latin recital of the school grace, a superb Homeric banquet, and an afterdinner oration delivered by Matilde Nannizzi and Eddie Wang.The event was, as ever, a fantastic way to culminate the school’s year-long celebration of all things Classics.
Mr S Young
The East/South-East Asian (ESEA) Society is a safe space for members of the ESEA community at King’s to gather on a weekly basis to play games, chat and discuss issues pertinent to the recognition and well-being of our community within the school (with the occasional pizza as a celebration!). The society is open to anybody within the school community, regardless of their background, to be able to attend the
society as allies of the ESEA community and join the activities and discussions we partake in. It is our hope for the coming academic year to integrate some younger members of the ESEA and King’s community into the society to create a long-lasting, diverse and supportive community reaching across the whole school.
Theo Bonding (lower sixth)
ESEA Founder
At Engage, we meet regularly every week. We invariably start with a game or two and discuss the Bible. Pizza is served alongside a thoughtful
and interesting discussion about many aspects of the Christian faith.The time is a free space for anyone to express their thoughts and opinions and all are welcome.
Over the course of this year, it has been a joy to see Engage grow, with new students visiting for the first time, and this has led to a fascinating range of discourse which I hope continues into the future. What I love about Engage is that although everyone has a different point of view, it can be shared and listened to respectfully and will not be received negatively.
Throughout the academic year, we have organised and attended events with Christian Unions from other schools, which were great successes.There were a fantastic range of games
This year, Dissection Club was open to fourth form and lower sixth biologists. We have dissected many different specimens ranging from starfish to pig trotters to frogs. One of my personal favourites was the “Christmas special” dissection where participants had to logically guess the specimens concealed within the “Christmas present”. As Dissection Club leaders, we have especially enjoyed explaining the intricate anatomy of many animals to fellow dedicated biologists. Ximena Harrington To (lower sixth)
and activities, bringing fun and enjoyment to all those involved. Overall it has been a great year. Alastair van der Meer (fourth form)
We have enjoyed a broad range of talks this year from visiting speakers, members of staff and from members of the sixth form.
The first lecture of the year was given by Mr Wheatley, who spoke on the Irving-Lipstadt libel trial of 2000, in which the hitherto respectable if controversial writer David Irving accused Deborah Lipstadt, another historian and president of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, of falsely labelling him as a denier of the Holocaust. The main point Mr Wheatley emphasised was the dangers of the misuse of sources and everpressing need for those of us who study history to question, challenge, think critically and base arguments on evidence.
This lecture was followed by a lively talk by Ed Babar and Tommie Andrews entitled “Jazz: the soundtrack to social change in twentieth century America.” The talk was interspersed with music from the time and engendered a lively response from the audience.
The autumn term ended with a fascinating talk from Sir Hugo Swire on his time as a Tory MP and government minister. Sir Hugo took the audience behind the scenes of daily life as an MP, and then fielded a range of excellent, penetrating questions from upper fifth and sixth form pupils. Although he did not shy away from some of the difficulties of life in the public eye, he ended on an upbeat note, quoting his father-in-law, Sir John Nott, who observed that to be an MP is to have “a seat at
the best dinner table in town”.
At the start of the spring term Mr Stephenson took us back in time and spoke on the origins of the crusading movement. He showed how the genesis and the subsequent development of what is now called the crusading movement lay in a combination of spiritual inducement and the desire for material gain on the level of individuals.
In the second half of the term we were delighted to welcome Dr Conor Morrissey, Senior Lecturer in Irish and British History at King’s College London. He gave a brilliant talk on the Irish revolution from 1916 to 1923, which clearly demonstrated the complexity of the causes and problems arising from partition, and of the different types of nationalism. It was fascinating to hear about the disproportionate number of women amongst the republican ranks in 1916, and he clearly illustrated the tragedy of the civil war, which still resonates for many in Ireland.
We were also lucky to hear presentations by sixth form pupils Sal Gani and Fahad Al Saud (both lower sixth). Sal delivered a talk on the seventh century Arab commander Khalid ibn alWalid, which asked whether his military record merits comparison with Alexander the Great, and mused on the reasons why Khalid is so little known in the west. Fahad delivered the second lecture of the evening, examining the role of the popular press in shaping perceptions of the Iraq War of 2003. Both talks were scholarly, erudite
and engaging, and set a high bar for the pupil-led lectures of the summer term.
At the start of the summer term we were pleased to welcome a thoughtful and balanced Q&A from Stephen Bush, political editor of The Financial Times. The evening was chaired by a very well-prepared Alex Defterios (upper sixth), who put a set of interesting and wide-ranging questions to Stephen. The event was a treat for politicos as well as budding journalists who benefitted greatly from Stephen’s insight.
Ms R Davis
In the seventh issue of History of Science Magazine, we delved into the captivating history of electricity and magnetism. Focused on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we explored the remarkable advancements made during this period that laid the groundwork for our modern understanding of these phenomena.
Throughout the issue, our writers delved into the historical objects, pioneering scientists, and mathematical theories that shaped the field. Our journey began with William Gilbert, who conducted extensive research into magnetism and made the groundbreaking distinction between magnetism and electricity. We then
issue. Tristan Andersson (fourth form) investigated the evolution of the Leyden jar and its significance in scientific discovery, offering valuable insights into the context surrounding the work of Gilbert, Franklin, Volta, and Oersted. Sam Salwan (fourth form) delved into the disagreement and dialogue that shaped scientific advancement, focusing on the voltaic pile and the conflicting views between Volta and Galvani. Oliver Au (fourth form) explored Faraday’s work on the concept of fields, shedding light on the nature of reality and the fundamental constituents of the universe. Areehant (year 8) reported on Maxwell’s remarkable achievement of unifying electricity and magnetism into a single
delved into the contributions of Benjamin Franklin, who significantly advanced our knowledge of lightning and formulated the singlefluid theory of electricity. Notable figures such as Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the voltaic pile, and Hans Christian Oersted, whose work on the relationship between electricity and magnetism was influenced by romanticism, were explored in detail. The issue also featured in-depth pieces on Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, two renowned physicists and mathematicians of the nineteenth century. These exceptional individuals utilized historical objects such as the Leyden jar and the battery to conduct their research and formulate key theories that continue to be foundational in modern physics and mathematics. We are grateful to our excellent writers in this
overarching mathematical theory, showcasing the profound impact of his contributions. Finally, Winston Qiu (year 8) presented his findings on how the development of mathematical tools such as divergence and curl aided in the unification of scientific fields, particularly in the realm of electromagnetism.
By examining the key developments in the understanding and study of electricity and magnetism during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we gained valuable insights into the foundations of future research in this field. This issue of the magazine highlighted the profound impact of historical discoveries and the ongoing significance of these contributions to the world of science.
Mr A Foster
This year Teddy Bride Mayor (lower fifth), James Feng (lower fifth) and I have been running a club about microelectronics for the lower school, in which we use custom-made circuit boards to do some different projects. The pupils go through the whole project process, creating a schematic then designing the board which involves the layout, routing all the components together with sufficient size and distancing of components, and then soldering them onto the printed circuit board (PCB) and getting to program it.
The team, led by myself, delivers weekly tutorials to pupils, teaching them all about programming, coding, electronics theory and also includes practical demonstrations. The pupils have worked through a number of projects that have been an ideal complement to the work that they have done in Physics and Design Engineering.
Josh Hatcher (lower fifth)
The Robert Graves Society provides an opportunity for pupils from year 7 up to the upper fifth to attend cross-curricular academic lectures. There is no set formula for talks or events, which can include but is not limited to: bitesize sixth form-style extension; topics of wonder; tales of skills-based experience; STEM; classical curios; and critical thinking. For example, this year Mr Massey explained Bioethics and
the use of animals in research, beginning is talk began with the question, “Should we eliminate Mosquitoes to help eradicate disease?”; Mr Wilson gave an illuminating talk whilst playing some wonderful music on the school’s organ, “The King of Instruments”; and Mr Bransfield explored our sense of smell, drawing inspiration from literature and the research of global pharmaceutical businesses.
The series of lectures leads towards an opportunity for pupils to enter a synoptic essay competition, researching and writing on a selfgenerated question over the Easter holiday. Every entry this year was an extremely interesting read and a credit to the pupils’ initiative and endeavour. It was also pleasing that all entries were evidently fun for the pupils to research and produce.
Mr J Renwick
Ayan Patel (year 8) won the essay competition with his insightful and thought-provoking essay “Is there such a thing as innate knowledge?” which was written in memory of Dr Kevin Ralley. Here is his conclusion to whet your appetite. To read the whole fascinating piece search “Robert Graves Society Essay Competition 2023” on the school website.
The philosophical debate around the existence of innate knowledge has gone on for centuries but recently neuroscience has offered a different insight. The definition of knowledge is central to any argument for or against innatism. While writing this essay it dawned on me that innate behaviour in animals may not be considered by philosophers as the same as innate knowledge. Is the ability of a bar tailed godwit’s first migration actually knowledge in philosophical terms i.e. a justified true belief or is it instinct and where does instinct fit in with innate knowledge. Does the bird just start to migrate or does it think I should migrate. I would argue there is real ground to argue against ‘pure’ innatism and ‘pure’ empiricism and science is starting to give some insight in to the existence of some form of innatism. I feel Leibniz’s stance is closer to answering the question of innate knowledge in that there is some quality we possess that is innate but experiences are needed to trigger this in to a conscious state.These concepts are likely to be researched further especially when designing artificial intelligence in that should true AI have some built in concepts or be a true tabula rasa.
Senior mathematical competitions took place between October and December. The first round unfortunately coincided with the university entrance tests, resulting in a reduced participation of 54 pupils this year. All entrants received medals, including 29 gold awards. Ten of the competitors advanced to compete in the Britsh Maths Olympiad round 1, with Ranesh Ratnesan (upper sixth) achieving the top score, just ahead of Haran Fernando (lower sixth), who also earned a distinction.
The intermediate rounds take place in the spring term. This year, 110 pupils participated, with results tying the record with 77 of these entrants achieving gold awards. Fourteen pupils progressed to the Intermediate Olympiad, where Ishaan Chinoy (fourth form) and Ethan Lim (upper fifth) both received gold medals, placing them among the top 20 students in their year group nationally. Ishaan’s gold in the Intermediate Olympiad follows his gold win in the Junior Maths Olympiad last year.
Last summer, 274 pupils participated in the Junior Maths Challenge, with more than half of them earning gold awards. Of these, 33 pupils
continued to the Junior Olympiad, a 2-hour paper that requires writing rigorous mathematical solutions to six complex questions. Among the 33 pupils from King’s, 17 received merits, and 8 earned distinctions. The latter group included the six medal winners: Devansh Gupta (year 8) who achieved a bronze for the second year in a row, Hari Singh (year 8) and Daniel Panna (year 8) who both also secured bronze medals; Batu Buyuksolak (year 8) earned a silver, as well as Winston Qiu (year 8), who received his second silver medal; then at the top of the list was
An array of events were hosted by the Arthur Wellesley Society in 2022-23. There follows a few details about three of the programme’s stand-out events.
Early in the new school year, the society ran a trip to the Sickert Exhibition at Tate Britain, to explore the work of modernist artist and King’s alumnus Walter Sickert. The exhibition was the first retrospective of his work for over 60 years and provided an invaluable insight into Sickert’s role in shaping modern British art as it documented the evolution of his style. The afternoon included a private talk given by curator Sarah Stopford, who then guided the group through the exhibition, pointing out the characteristics of Sickert’s work such as painting scenes reflected in mirrors, the inspiration that he found in Victorian music halls and the various meanings of the imagery used in his work.
Later in the year, two fascinating talks took place. The first was presented by Professor
Michael Scott, another illustrious OK. Ancient historian, academic and broadcaster Professor Scott gave a talk about the origins of the world phenomenon that is Machu Picchu. The insightful talk illuminated the twists and turns of the site’s recent history, covering its rediscovery by Hiram Bingham III, specialist in South American history, who waited a year to start revealing the ruins after he first came across the site in 1911; and the Peruvian government’s delay in acknowledging the site’s significance, which only began in the 1980s. Professor Scott explained that Bingham had always maintained that Machu Picchu was “the lost city of the Incas” but that later research has indicated that it was actually a summer residence of Inca leaders and their entourage, thus the title of the talk, “The city that wasn’t lost and wasn’t a city” was one that neatly encapsulated the history of this magnificent World Heritage site!
Shortly before the Christmas holiays, a second
Areehant Gupta (year 8), who achieved a gold. Last year, a strong Hans Woyda team won all three of their group stage matches, which qualified them to compete for the cup.Their first opponents in the knockout stages were last year’s competition winners, Saint Olaves Grammar School. The team was tied on points going into the final round but narrowly missed out on advancing. The team consisted of Ishaan Chinoy (fourth form), Ethan Lim (upper fifth), Caleb Monk (lower sixth) and Ranesh Ratnesan (upper sixth).
Mr S Williams
highly absorbing talk took place when the society hosted former head Mr Andrew Halls, who spoke on the topic, “Dickens: the empathetic psychopath”. Mr Halls talked of themes in the life of Dickens, who, as he said, became possibly the world’s first “superstar”, but originated from extremely humble beginnings. Dickens’ love of money and possessions was a direct reaction to his poverty-stricken background. The lecture covered Dickens’ difficult relationships with his wife and children, whom he treated quite badly; his attachment to his young sister-in-law; his estrangement from his wife and subsequent relationship with an actress; his prodigious writing habits and consequent fame; and ultimately his rather untimely death and the legacy he left. The presentation was brought to life beautifully by a reading of one of Charles Dickens’ letters, as well as three cameo dramatic scenes played by pupils and directed by Mr James Trapmore.
Mr P Hatch
Twelve pupils took part in the Surrey Schools’ Bridge Cup on Friday 6th February. Our B team came second in the Surrey Schools’ Salver Competition and our mini-bridge team came second in the mini-bridge tournament. Miss C Robinson
Mini-bridge
Lucas Danson (year 8), Eliott Lespiau-Curial (year 8)
During half term, from 17th to 19th February, I participated in the annual Peggy Bayer Bridge Competition in Manchester which is played between the home nations of Great Britain and Ireland in the U21 age category. I represented England and my team ended up winning the event. This was achieved despite being deprived of sleep on Saturday night due to a fire alarm taking place at 4am at our hotel and waiting outside in the rain until the fire brigade let us go back into our rooms.
Maks Blicharz (year 8)
It has been another very eventful year in terms of chess at King’s. From our weekly Chess Club with coach IM Gavin Wall, competing in House Chess competitions both over-the-board and online with the International School of Monaco to the Surrey Briant Poulter League and the Under 19 National Final, the chess players at King’s have continuously been practising and honing their skills, openings, middle and end-games!
Mr O Vella
Congratulations to the lower school’s chess players who regained the English Chess Federation U13 national title on Saturday 25th March at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle. In an extraordinary performance, the school’s B team only missed out on the bronze medal by half a point.
In an unwanted start to the day, the two teams were paired against each other in round 1. Tensions were high on both sides, and the games were much more competitive than the final result suggested. The A team then surged into the overall lead with a second successive 4-0 win in round 2 (against Nottingham High School). Despite a 2-2 draw against last year’s champions, Wilson’s School, in round 4, the King’s team never relinquished this lead and finished 3.5 points ahead of the field with 20 points out of 24. Meanwhile, after their tough start, the B team won their remaining five matches in a streak which saw them move up to fourth place with 15 points.
The school had three of the top four individual performances, with Sanjit Kumar (year 8) scoring a perfect 6/6, Zain Patel (year 8) scoring 5.5/6 on top board and Aarav Gupta (year 7) scoring 5/6 (losing only to Sanjit). Overall, though, the day was marked by a superb team effort from all the King’s players.
Mr M Hortin
We kicked off the year with the Russell Trophy Jamboree after school at RGS Guildford where we came third out of six teams behind Hampton and winners Wilson’s.
The Briant Poulter League ran from September to March where the A and B teams participated in nine fixtures each. The B team, who also played in Division 1 with the A team, faced many challenges as they were up against other schools’ A teams. The B team ended up winning two of their matches and drawing one which put them level on points with Hampton B and one point behind Wilson’s B. The A team won the league last year and the pressure was on to retain the trophy. After winning eight of their games and losing just one,
the A team ended up equal on points to Wilson’s A but since they had won more individual games than Wilson’s, the A team won overall. This was despite the fact that the school’s strongest chess player, Ranesh (upper sixth) played in very few matches across the year to allow him to focus on his other passion, Mathematics. We therefore retain the first place trophy at King’s for another year! It does, however, sadly mean that we have to say farewell to Ranesh, as he heads to Cambridge University to read Mathematics. Ranesh, being rated consistently in the top three for his age group in the country, will be sorely missed as his victories over the years have certainly given King’s the winning edge in many matches.
After coming second in the Under 19 National final last year, the A team set their sights on winning the competition this year. Like with any sport, success in one year doesn’t always guarantee the same level or more success the year after as school chess teams are forever changing year on year. This year, Mr Vella, who was accompanied by Mr Hortin, took the A team up to Nottingham University for two days of chess and an overnight
stay at the University. Sadly, two team players were suffering from illness and were not playing their best but at the end of the first day, we won three out of three matches, including a win over last year’s competition winners, Westminster School, and were in second place behind a very strong Hampton team. The second day of chess did not go to plan as we lost in a very close match to Hampton and to QE Barnet School. This unfortunately meant the A team came home empty-handed after failing to reach the top two. Many congratulations go to Ranesh, Luca Buanne (lower fifth), Diego Cordova Lopez (upper fifth), Shahvez Ali (upper fifth), Sanjit Kumar (year 8), Hari Stewart (upper fifth) and Maxim (upper sixth) on their success with the A team this year and to B team players Wilfred Hill-Wood (lower fifth), Kabir Ghosh (fourth form), Matthew (lower sixth), Sen (lower fifth) and Kai (lower fifth) for kindly stepping in to play for the A team when needed.
O Vella
After competing in the regional finals, we qualified for the nationals as a wild card team. We made minor changes to the car to find some extra speed and improved our portfolios and pit display, ready to compete against top teams from across the UK at a two-day trip to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre. The event coincided with the International Autosport Show, so we were able to showcase our work alongside a big automotive event.
We were judged on the various elements of our project such as our portfolios and a verbal presentation summarising our experience. One of the highlights of the trip was the networking opportunities provided by exploring the show and conversing with potential universities and employers, as well as being surrounded by others with a passion for engineering. The other
Once we arrived at RAF Benson, we set up our pit display, which is a small stand that presents our work, cars and team identity, ready for our verbal presentation in the 45-minute time slot allocated. Following this, we had a short tour of a Chinook helicopter, right outside the hangar, which was incredible. Our enterprise portfolio and our brand identity were then judged which we believe went well as we had put together (with generous help from Ms Crummy) a strong pit display and the judges especially liked our recycled paper business cards. Reaction testing, was our next activity in which we were able to test the reaction speed of all our team’s members and we decided that Tom Gilbert had the most consistent and fastest reaction times, so he was to control the car in the race. Then our races began. We won all four against the opposition (Quantum racing) even though our reaction time was slightly slower than the other team’s. On the fourth and final race, we had a very good run with
highlight was of course the racing, where we watched our car hit speeds of over 50km/h. We received insightful feedback which we hope to pass on to the next generation of racers. In the nail biting run up to the awards ceremony, we watched an exhilarating display of motorsport vehicles and then it was time for the results. Despite our efforts we came home empty handed, finishing in ninth place nationally. The whole competition was an extremely educational, memorable and fun experience. We gained much
knowledge and are grateful that we took part. A massive thank you to our sponsors who made it all possible and to the teachers that gave up their time to look after us.
Fraser Burdett, Hal Hunter, Ed GrundyWheeler, Akash Burgess
a reaction time of 0.18 seconds and the total time was 1.55 seconds. This put us in second place for our category, which we were very pleased with as it was our first time doing F1 in schools, and we initially feared that our car would be heavier and slower than the opponents’. When the results were revealed, we did not win any awards which
we were disappointed about, as we thought the design of our pit display and enterprise portfolio were very strong. Although not successful, we had a great day and lots of fun together and we look forward to doing it again next year.
Gheorghi Castelli and the F1team (lower fifth)
On Sunday 10th September the Formula 24 team, along with Mr Phillps and Mr Li, went to compete in the Dunsfold Park Formula 24 heat. After getting set up in the paddock and by the pit lane, it was time for our car to be scrutineered. While the scrutineering went well, we had to change a couple of things before the car could race. In our practice session on track the team identified a problem with the brakes, which was slowing us down a lot. We only had 15 minutes before the car had to line up for race 1 so the team couldn’t finish fixing it.
Our car had a good start to the first race and we completed 8 laps before coming in to change driver. On our way out of the pits there was a large fault which halted race 1. Once we got the car back into the pits the team diagnosed the problem and with some help from teams nearby us, we replaced a part and solved the earlier issue with the brakes. Our final session, race 2, was very good with our laptimes improving by 32% compared to previous sessions. Overall, the car showed a lot of promise and some great teamwork and a lot of problem solving and perseverance got us very close to qualifying for the finals.
Seeing the that over 50 schools were racing in our event was really encouraging. Even local rivals St Pauls…!
The day was a success and was a great way to finish off our year working on the car. It was so rewarding to drive a car that we have built from scratch and we know we will take these mechanical principles and skills with us through sixth form and into potentially studying engineering at university!
Scott Hawkings
It has been a fantastic year for the team to develop their engineering skills and abilities as they head into their GCSE year.They have thrown themselves in to the club completely, working together as a team and showing fantastic results from the year.
I have been so impressed by their enthusiasm and commitment to the F24 team and it is brilliant to see them now mentoring the new team of lower fifth and fourth form. They have taken on huge responsibility to build and develop a car from scratch and after hours of testing and drawbacks, they were able to race the car competitively on race day.
The race day in September was a particular highlight as it showcased some of the best schools in the country and some amazing cars. The team saw schools who have worked on their car for many years and learnt lots from the design and development iteration processes they saw. They should all be immensely proud, and I am delighted to see them sharing their wisdom of mechanics with the current lower fifth. I hope we have the same success in the years to come.
Mr Phillips
During the Easter holidays, as lower sixth Biology stalwarts, we were treated to three days away at Nettlecombe Court in Somerset to investigate the local wildlife, and for the IB students to write coursework alongside it! My favourite moments were certainly either stargazing on the last night, or the opportunity to independently collect IA data on the last day.
Tom Constantinou-Hickman (lower sixth)
All of the A level students had great fun doing core practicals, as well as some extra activities like mouse catching and bat detecting! I think my favourite moment would have to be watching another group wade into the river, waist deep, to try and get their depth measurements, and the horrified look on my teacher’s face when she found out one of them couldn’t swim!
Catherine Chang (lower sixth)
To start the trip off, everyone hastily dumped their bags off at Nettlecombe for a tightly packed coach ride down to the beach. All the students enjoyed picking up and examining different types of aquatic life. Some other fun moments involved the A level vs IB football derby in our free time (A level triumphed over a poor IB side) as well as an exciting scavenger hunt with friends around the grounds.
Ed Shinn (lower sixth)
During the first week of the Easter holidays, a group of King’s Spanish students visited Valencia. Mornings were filled with lessons, covering a range of topical issues from feminism to Hispanic music, whilst afternoons and evenings were spent exploring the city. Highlights of the trip included visits to the Oceanographic Aquarium, riding electric scooters along the dry riverbed, a walking tour of the old town, and visits to the beach. Of course, during the trip we tried the delicious Paella Valenciana and tapas. Perhaps the most unique element of the trip was staying with host families. This provided students with a fantastic opportunity to immerse themselves in typical Spanish (and Colombian for some!) lifestyles, to taste even more typical Spanish dishes, and learn some useful Hispanic expressions.
Sam Herbert (lower sixth)
We arrived in Lake Garda! Aside from unpacking and setting up rooms, we tucked into a lovely dinner and a game of football. The following day, we visited the Italian version of Disneyland, Gardaland, where we rode an exhilarating rollercoaster that paused as we reached a complete vertical drop. Next, we went on a confusing ride that twisted us upside down and tricked us as we weren’t aware of whether it was the room that spun or the ride itself. Next was the Blue Tornado, apparently the scariest ride of them all, however we still conquered it with some shouting and screaming. We returned home, ate a lovely dinner
It was a true pleasure to once again be out and about exploring the historical sites that we have pored over in the classroom. Nothing brings history to life like re-treading the footsteps of our forebears, who in 1944 battled weather, sea-sickness, fear and the enemy to storm northern France. Our hotel was mere yards from the beaches that were once awash with blood and filled with the stench of cordite. The boys marvelled at being so close and yet so far from that moment.
In a whirlwind four days we were treated to perfect sunshine and a great fistful of fine stories. Mr Pinder regaled us with tales of his grandfather, who was among those who landed in a glider at Pegasus Bridge in a daring and brilliant mission. We heard too of the bravery of the boys of Pointe du
and then came another rather viscous football match involving dire celebrations. On the third day, we travelled to the province of Limone, visiting a lovely farm more suited to tourists than commercial growth, and learnt about why Limone has such a strong affiliation to lemons. We returned via boat, where our hair was tossed upwards and lots of embarrassing photos were taken. On the fourth day, a trip to Venice was in store. We marvelled at the famous bridges we had all seen in films and photos and yet now were present in the flesh. Further on, we took a gondola and toured the peaceful streets of Venice, expertly guided by a Venetian himself. Upon our return we were greeted by another lovely Italian dinner and another game of football, believe it or not. On the fifth day, we visited Sirmione and its castle with awesome views, before lunch and a huge gelato. We then went to the beach for a couple of hours of free time. On the final day we went to the city of Verona to see the famous arena and learnt about the ancient Romans, and posed on the famous Juliet balcony. Our thanks go to Mrs Liberti and her team for making this such a memorable trip.
James Macmillan (upper fifth)
Hoc, who charged up sheer cliff faces, and would years later become immortalised by the words of President Reagan, and through cinema in The Longest Day. We stood in the immeasurably beautiful American Cemetery – ‘This is in Saving Private Ryan, sir!’ - and looked down on the treacherous terrain of Omaha Beach which made the Americans’ efforts so brutally difficult. And as we travelled around Normandy by coach, we listened to stories of deception and enterprise,
of Patton’s punch and Mongomery’s double in Gibraltar. And then, to round it all off, we pootled over to Mont-St-Michel to spend our pocket money on the sort of loveable tat that one day we will find drenched in dust in the back of a cupboard, a reminder of that time we drove to France to see for ourselves the traces and scars war left on our world.
Mr O Wheatley
The recent visit by King’s students to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland included a tour of the Swiss Plasma Centre and tokamak reactor –to see a working fusion reactor.
Founded in 1954, the CERN laboratory sits astride the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva.The body, which has 2,500 employees and 23 member states, helps to uncover what the universe is made of and how it works. It does this by providing a unique range of particle accelerator facilities to researchers, to advance the boundaries of human knowledge.
After inclement weather and a severely delayed flight, we touched down in snow-covered Geneva with high spirits. Soon, we were whisked off to CERN to explore ATLAS, a general-purpose particle detector in the LHC. Getting to see behind the scenes in areas not open to the public, we gleaned a huge amount of knowledge from some of the leading physicists in their fields. We then went on to GESDA to learn about some upcoming Radar technology, before finishing the
day by playing a very fun and competitive escape room. The next day, we visited both the fission and tokamak fusion reactors at the EPFL, in Lausanne, enjoying a lakeside train journey to get there. It was incredibly cool to see these reactors in the flesh after having spent so much time learning about them theoretically. After enjoying the Christmas market, we finished off by eating traditional fondues.
Aniket Garg (lower sixth)
IT WAS INCREDIBLY COOL TO SEE THESE REACTORS IN THE FLESH AFTER HAVING SPENT SO MUCH TIME LEARNING ABOUT THEM THEORETICALLY
At 5.30am as the sun rose on a Friday morning in June, 20 blurry eyed pupils waved goodbye to their parents at Wimbledon station and, accompanied by Mr Ross and Miss Robinson, embarked on their journey to Lyon. Despite TFL’s signal failures sabotaging our journey to Heathrow, forcing us to take five different tube trains and making our arrival at the airport dangerously late, we managed to board our flight. After the five tube trains, plane, tram and bus, we finally arrived at our host school, Les Chartreux, in the early afternoon,
excited to reconnect with our French exchange partners. The weekend was then spent en famille with many of us fortunate enough to escape the heat of Lyon and head to country houses, Alpine apartments and one of us even travelled as far as Provence. The French families went to great lengths to ensure that our weekends were memorable, with various fun activities planned including hiking, water skiing and rafting, and of course tasting of the local Lyonnais delicacies. On Monday, we all met up again and started the day with a boat trip on the Soane, followed by a visit
Ito the Musée des Beaux Arts where we were dazzled by its extraordinary collection. Tuesday started with a visit to the Fouvière Basilica, followed by a fun session at Accrobranche (Lyon’s equivalent to Go-Ape). Wednesday was dedicated to visiting two museums: the fascinating cinema museum in Vieux Lyon and the modern Confluence Museum. Thursday included a tour of the famous traboules and fun activities in the afternoon with our exchange partners, such as laser tag and bowling. On Friday, we were sorry to say goodbye to our exchange families, but felt fortunate to have had the opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in French culture, elevate our language skills and create long-lasting memories. We would all like to thank Mr Ross for organising the trip and also Miss Robinson and Dr Cheung for accompanying.
t was an eventful expedition to Norway for a group of intrepid pupils from the upper fifth and lower sixth. With an itinerary that included exploration of the Jotunheimen National Park and kayaking in the Western Fjords, the group took in some staggering scenery, braved bracing weather and developed real resilience over their fourteen day trip.
Mr C Sandels
On Friday 23rd June, two amazing teachers, Herr Starrett and Frau Lindsey-Noble, and 12 boys from the lower fifth set out from Heathrow to Stuttgart for what would become a very eventful German Exchange. Accompanied by the cohort from Putney High, we were in for an exciting and thrilling week ahead. We began by spending the weekend with our host families, traversing Tübingen and immersing ourselves in a new culture. Our first day involved us on the Neckar, aboard a Stocherkahn, punting along the city’s banks and looking at spectacular views of the Altstadt and afterwards attempting a Stadtspiel, which nobody actually completed! The next day, we ventured deep into a forest where we had a fun day climbing through the flora of a Waldseilgarten, easily one of the highlights of the trip. That Wednesday, after an early morning and a long train ride, we arrived in the beauteous city of Stuttgart, situated between the famous Black Forest and the Swabian Alps. We took to the busy streets and having not strolled through the city for long, some of us found a hidden gem, that
was Sky Beach. Offering amazing views of the city and its greenery, the rooftop beach rivalled the famous TV Tower for its wonderful scenery and pretty landscapes. Subsequently,Thursday brought
a tiring trek upon us, as we hiked from Bisingen to nearby castle Schloss Hohenzollern in staggeringly high temperatures. Having briefly looked around the castle, we had a short break for lunch, before preparing ourselves for the long walk back. That evening, we headed to the Freibad, a swimming pool park where we regularly spent our free time together. That, along with an array of unscheduled activities really made our foreign voyage a magnificent enjoyment. Our last day, Friday, was without a doubt the most action-packed.The longawaited Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory entailed an exciting morning making and tasting chocolate and exploring the woods and Ritter Sport Shop and Museum. After heading back to the school, Wildermuth Gymnasium, we spent our last afternoon walking around Tübingen before taking a bus to the airport to fly home. All in all, the Tübingen exchange was one to remember, as it massively helped our speaking skills and widened our horizons while experiencing a new culture! Daniel Pereira (lower fifth)
THE LONG-AWAITED RITTER SPORT CHOCOLATE FACTORY ENTAILED AN EXCITING MORNING MAKING AND TASTING
THAT NIGHT WE STAYED UP LATE AND WERE REWARDED BY GETTING TO SEE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
After a 3am departure from school, we flew from Heathrow to Iceland’s Keflavik airport. We headed straight into the tour by stopping at the American and Eurasian plate boundary. It had black sand, which is made by black volcanic rock. We then headed to a geyser - which is caused by surface water gradually seeping down through the ground until it meets rock heated by magma - followed by all being drenched by some big waves pounding into rocks leading to hydraulic action and abrasion.
The next day, after stopping at another hot spring, we headed towards the ice cave. We boarded a big truck which led us up the powdered mountain towards the glacier.The highlight of the ice cave was seeing the big crevasse, which the guide told us was slowly closing in due to climate change and other factors. That evening we went for a walk in Reykjavik seeing the church, and a big valley.
On Wednesday, we visited the Geothermal Power Plant followed by a crater lake which we took a walk around. That afternoon we ate lunch at a waterfall before heading to an even bigger one. This was one of the highlights of the trip because we got so close to the water. We then headed to the cabin hotel. That night we stayed up late and were rewarded by getting to see the Northern Lights.
Thursday morning, we experienced some good geography by seeing prime examples of an arch stack and stump formation. We then put on our crampons and helmets and hiked up the Eyjafjallajökull glacier. We even drank some of the water at the plateau because of how pure it is. The day ended with us seeing a 60m high waterfall followed by watching the lava show in Reykjavik where we saw lava up close and how it reacted with ice. That was cool!
George Macklin (fourth form)
The final trip of the summer was for King’s senior rugby players who travelled to the University of Nottingham to take part in an extensive pre-season training camp. Alongside rugby training the activities included speed and strength and conditioning sessions, hydropool recovery time, grappling guidance from a GB judo coach, sport psychology and nutrition workshops, paddleboarding and bowling. The 41 players from the sixth form and upper fifth made the most of the impressive facilities available at the university and progressed across the five days. Relationships were strengthened and their skills, fitness and knowledge all improved. It was a great way for them to begin the season in the best possible way.
Mr E Bowden
Some of our year 7 and 8 pupils had a fun and enjoyable visit to Sestriere in Italy over the Christmas break, to take part in the Independent Schools Ski Championships. After a very long journey caused by heavy snowfall, the skiing conditions were excellent and we enjoyed blue skies all week.
Our instructors Stefano, Roberto, Mickey and Julia were great fun and had a brilliant time
with our pupils. The torch lit descent after sunset was a particular highlight of the trip, as was the opportunity to take part in some competitive ski racing, especially the team parallel event.
Thank you to all the pupils who came and behaved so impeccably; you were a credit to the school.
Mr M Poole
In June, 19 IGCSE Spanish students travelled to Totana in the region of Murcia in Spain to complete the return leg of the Spanish exchange. We were all very nervous to meet our partners’ families but also excited and ready to immerse ourselves in Spanish culture for a week. All the families were extremely welcoming and had planned a whole host of activities for us to do with not just our partners but other students on the exchange. Some of the most enjoyable activities were rafting and kayaking, but above all I enjoyed spending time at the pool and the beach with all the other exchange students where we could have fun and cool off from the baking heat. We got to try lots of traditional Spanish food such as tortilla, a sort of potato omelette, and of course paella. All in all, it was a great experience because not only did we get to improve our listening and speaking skills, but also, we learnt about Spanish culture and enjoyed a great time away from home!
AlexanderGolder (lower fifth)
Individual 2nd place for Leander Offerhaus (year 7) in U12 Giant Slalom
Individual 3rd place for Sam Bowles (year 7) in U14 Giant Slalom
Individual 4th place for Leander Offerhaus in U12 Slalom
Team 1st place Junior Boys’ Slalom
Team 2nd place Junior Boys’ Combined
Team 3rd place Senior Boys’ Giant Slalom
Well done to everyone who took part!
The Art department has been a hive of productivity and creativity this year. The highlight of the year was the Summer Show where GCSE and A level pupils displayed their ambitious and exciting works. We were also delighted to run our annual Lower School Exhibition at the end of the spring term and this year as part of the inaugural King’s Arts festival we held an exhibition covering all year groups across both the junior and senior school. Alongside this we have seen great engagement with clubs and competitions and have been delighted to see some great successes along the way. This year has seen year 7 students visit Kew Gardens, year 8 students take part in animation and street art workshops, lower fifth students working with guest artist Jeanette Barnes and our sixth form have benefited from several gallery visits and life drawing workshops. This selection of work highlights the breadth of ideas explored by our creative and curious students.
Mrs Gillian Yuille – Head of Art
The lower school developed exciting and imaginative work over the course of the year. A range of skills from clay to spraypaint were explored with ideas based on a variety of themes ranging from portraiture celebrating black artists, surrealistic landscapes, weeds, and political graphic art. All year 7 and 8 students’ work was displayed in the annual Lower School Exhibition in the Cotman Gallery at the end of the spring term.
In the middle school the highlight of the year was the fantastic work produced by our GCSE students. The ambition and creativity of their work made for an incredible GCSE end of year show. Lower fifth students made a great start to their GCSE course, producing some fantastic landscape paintings at the end of the year. Members of the fourth form worked on a variety of exciting projects such as ceramic food sculptures, animation, and photo editing, all focused on building on skills students had developed in the lower school.
On Wednesday 3rd May, I was invited to City Hall to attend the award ceremony for the Fourth Plinth Schools Awards 2023. It was a great learning experience, to meet my peers from different boroughs across London and interesting to see their works which covered a vast array of artistic mediums as well as a very wide variety of themes, including the late Queen, the war in Ukraine, life in London and climate change. It was also a privilege to meet the Deputy Mayor of Culture and Creative Industries, Justine Simons and Andria Zafirakou, the winner of the 2018 global teacher prize who were presenting the awards. I was honored to be announced as the winner of the Borough of Merton as one of 46 from over 2,000 applicants. Oliver Au (lower fifth)
Our sixth form artists created some outstanding work over the course of the year. The quality of our upper sixth students’ work was fantastic both in terms of the skill and the conceptual ideas that their projects were built around. It was a pleasure to see their work showcased in our annual A level end of year show. Our lower sixth students have had an incredibly strong start to the course, the skill level of the group is clear, and we are very excited to see how their work progresses in upper sixth and look forward to next year’s showcase!
LOVED SEEING EVERYONE’S WORK TOGETHER, ALSO NICE TO GET A SNAPSHOT OF WHAT WE MIGHT BE DOING NEXT YEAR
IT REALLY WAS AN AMAZING DISPLAY OF ALL THE ART THE SCHOOL IS ABLE TO PRODUCE, WITH A BEAUTIFUL VARIETY OF IDEAS
Jonah Pask (upper fifth)
It has been a very successful year for Design Engineering, with our first team making it to the National Finals of the F1 in Schools competition held in the Birmingham NEC. This year also sees the final phase of our Reeve School refurbishment project, and so we will be thrilled to see this completed in September 2023; giving students access to state-of-the-art workshops and excellent CAD facilities, including the new Denford CNC Mill, Wazer Waterjet Cutter and VEX Kits kindly donated to us from The Friends of King’s. Miss L Spicer
As part of their year 7 Design and Engineering lessons, the students learned how to use OnShape – a piece of Computer Aided Design software. Through their lessons they explored how to part model as well as exploring increasingly complex modelling skills like assemblies and animations, culminating in an individual fidget spinner design that they animated.The best work was 3D printed.
The pupils undertook some pewter casting in which they designed and made their own pewter magic token, for use by a magician in a magic trick. The project taught them about the melting point of metals and the casting process, as well as building their workshop skills to increase their ability to manufacture with accuracy.
Turn it up!
The pupils designed a three-layer passive speaker that amplified the sound from their phone, requiring them to consider the size of the phone and the available space and location for their speaker for their primary user. They built upon their knowledge and skills in the workshop, finishing their design with laser cut parts they designed in Onshape.
Aeroplane Modelling:
This project builds on skills that the students have learnt through their OnShape lessons in year 7. Year 8 undertook a project that focussed on assemblies of parts to build more complex models.
Harry Jones was awarded star of the month in March for his proficiency in using Onshape, completing a series of tutorials to build and assemble multiple parts of his aeroplane, customising, animating and editing the appearance with exceptional results.
VEX:
Pupils learned about using VEX VR – a virtual reality platform that teaches them the basics of coding to control the movements of a little VR robot which tackles challenges in a range of different environments.
Miami Beach:
Students explored the role that design movements play in the design and manufacture of products, with a particular focus on Art Deco. For this project, students were initially asked to explore the movement, and to generate a mood board and some ideas before designing and modelling an Art Deco themed micro-building, whilst developing their skills in Onshape. The best designs from each group were 3D printed to create a microcosm displaying work from across the cohort.
Miss L Spicer
Design & Engineering is one of my favourite subjects. An amalgamation of science, technology, and creativity, it is enough to get my STEM-oriented self incredibly excited, as well as allowing me to express my creativity in a way that I cannot in any other subject.
Studying DE for my GCSEs has been a boatload of fun, with a perfect balance of both theory and academic work through manufacturing and making various projects. Having access to a range of both professional grade hardware and software, as well as amazing teachers and technicians, is an amazing bonus, and a privilege which allows me to fully realise my projects, however ambitious I may have been! Participating in the co-curricular side such as F24 has been a great way to take this even further, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working on the F24 car. It has allowed me to both hone my existing skills and learn new ones in a way that is simply not possible in a lesson setting, making it one of the best highlights of my time so far in the department. There are very few subjects like DE in which you have a great deal of freedom and have the support and resources to create what you want, and I am truly grateful to have access to such a department.
Saksham Agrawal (lower fifth)
Get Bike Buddy today and take your cycling experience to the next level! This innovative tool securely carries any size phone on any size bike, giving you peace of mind and allowing you to focus on the road ahead. With its easy-touse gear and elastic mechanism, your phone stays firmly in place throughout your ride. Bike Buddy is lightweight and portable, making it perfect for commuting, hitting the trails, or enjoying a leisurely ride around town. Don’t let a loose phone ruin your ride – choose Bike Buddy.
Ethan Lim (upper fifth)
The inaugural House Engineering event took place on Tuesday 2nd May. Each house submitted a team of four pupils, one from each senior year group. The teams were charged with the task of designing and building a bridge structure that could span a set distance and support the most weight – each bridge was tested, to destruction in some cases! The house teams were judged on their ability to use materials carefully, with strength to weight ratio being a key factor in deciding the final placings. Maclear won with a novel design, closely followed by Layton and then Major. The event was a big success and we look forward to running the competition again next year.
Miss L Spicer
The “Svelte” wallet is a product aimed at anyone who values their cards and cash. It features a tracker pocket so that you can find your wallet if you lose it or it gets stolen. The wallet has a small footprint so that it can easily fit in pockets of any size, and you can fit 4-5 cards and some cash in it. It is optimized for contactless payments, but in case you do need to remove a card or use some cash, it has been tested to make this process as fast and painless as possible.
Virgile Alexandre-Epivent (upper fifth)
HushPuppy is an interactive toy and feeder to occupy your pet while you’re working from home. The overall small size of the product allows it to be easily stored, and the combination of a Lick Mat and a slice container allows the user to personally decide how to use the product. The 3D printed Lick Mat can easily be removed from the product, and is dishwasher safe so easy to clean. The slice containers can be removed by a customisable drawer pull, and are large enough to store small pet toys whilst securely fixtured with suction cups on the base.
Jaye Saiz (upper fifth)
Last year started with the skateboard project, where we each spent some time at the start of the term doing research on shapes, sizes, and materials of existing popular skateboards. We were then given free rein on materials and shapes, which I loved because I could impart some personality onto the project. We then got to use a variety of tools such as routers and biscuit cutters to develop our construction skills and put our theory learning into practice.
We later made a hand-plane project where we had the opportunity to use the metal working lathe as well as the forge for tempering, hardening, and brazing.
I have really enjoyed the practicality and real-world applications of the subject - it was a mixture of Mechanics, Physics, and practical skills, all of which have real-world applications; this is why I picked Design and Engineering for A level.
Jack Maguire (lower sixth)
Lewis Carroll’s timeless and bewitching classic inspired this new adaptation, which followed Alice from a sleepy sepia riverbank of the 1950s, down a rabbit hole and into a psychedelic world of madness and joyful mayhem, accompanied by a swinging 60s soundtrack. A mischievous and manipulative ensemble of Cheshire cats were our guides through this
fantastical world: audiences were delighted by the wonderfully imaginative work of this talented, comedic and endlessly creative lower school company, who were generously supported by a highly skilled design and technical team of middle school and sixth form pupils.
Miss H Feeny
Superb direction and outstanding acting
Fresh from stellar success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with countless 5-star reviews and sell-out performances, KCS Theatre Co.’s original adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s gothic masterpiece went through further development and was brought to new life in summer 2023 – this time on the Criterion Stage in Piccadilly Circus, bringing KCS Theatre Co. back to London’s West End for the first time in 25 years. With the film of the original production also showing as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival (among others), and the original album on iTunes, the live performance showcased the absolute best of King’s Drama, garnering rave reviews and a host of new fans.
Miss D BarronBetter than any West End production… it was absolutely exceptional
An incredible, hard-hitting and moving production of a timeless classic…. KCS Theatre Company’s reimagination of Dorian is one for the theatrical history books
It was an incredible privilege and pleasure to work with almost 60 talented and passionate middle school performers and technicians on this production. Everyone pulled together to deliver a unique double bill of two shorter plays performed by two companies. The audience first enjoyed Nikolai Gogol’s fast-paced and darkly comic The Government Inspector, then were plunged into the tragic, claustrophobic world of Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy. Design was key in unifying the double bill: both plays have urgent moral dilemmas at their core and so it was fitting that their action was built on one set, with the door as the central focus. In The Government Inspector, characters are terrified as to who will come through it; in Incident at Vichy, the fear of being dragged through to potential oblivion dominated the atmosphere.
The whole company of The Government Inspector committed terrifically to the frenzied pace and melodramatic tone required by the text. Special mention must go to Jayden Sasikaran and Rolf Bentinck van Schoonheten (both lower fifth) for their exuberant performances in the two lead roles.
Led by powerhouse performances from Sal Swinburne (lower fifth), Harry Runeckles (fourth form) and Dhirren Farmer (lower fifth), the highly talented dramatic ensemble worked beautifully with the stylized movement ensemble to create a deeply tense and tragic play. The company performed with incredible sensitivity and nuance, bringing real truth and raw emotion to the harrowing tale of Incident of Vichy Miss D Barron and Mr J Trapmore
We were delighted to showcase an original play in this year’s sixth form play slot: written and directed by Caitlin Costello (lower sixth Drama scholar), Scottie follows the tumultuous marriage of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda as experienced by their daughter Scottie. The production created a haunting picture of the dark reality of fame and showcased some beautiful performances and skilful direction and design: an incredible testament to the leadership, vision and collaboration of a record number of talented lower sixth students. Miss D Barron
Approximately 70 pupils dedicated incredible talent and time to bringing Stoppard’s beloved creation to life: with the largest cast in recent years, a student-led band and a host of excellent student production team members, it was an incredibly collaborative and creative journey through the months of rehearsal. With modern naturalism, Shakespearean language, sword-fighting, stylised movement, acrobatics, live music, Elizabethan singing and dancing (and of course, a bit with a dog!), it has been a wonderful creative challenge and the audiences thoroughly enjoyed the final performances!
Miss D Barron
Technical Theatre CCA is a very accessible programme designed to introduce students to a wide range of practical theatre-making skills such as lighting, sound, set design and stage management. The activities are inclusive and designed to promote teamwork and communication, and to encourage experiential learning, and a route into further study and professional theatre for the highly motivated. We are delighted that our pupil technical community, who provide stage management and technical operation for school productions, have passed through Technical Theatre CCA, experiencing a safe space by process of experiential learning. Last year we had some of the largest technical teams in King’s history for productions at every age group: highlights from the year include designing and operating the lighting and sound for the sixth form play, Scottie, as well as running tech for the production of Dorian at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End.
Mrs J Howcroft
The House Plays Festival proved an absolute triumph of passion and perseverance as the creative collaborations of 115 students graced the stage for two performances. Six twenty-minute plays – abridged/adapted, directed, designed and produced by the students themselves – competed for the grand title.
Maclear’s fabulously cheeky Blackadder opened the night with chuckles aplenty as we revelled in the absurd hunt for a German spy; Alverstone delivered a highly imaginative Enron, taking us on an adrenaline-fuelled descent of destruction; Major’s The Giver – an incredibly moving dystopian tale about a young boy struggling to experience the deep emotions his society denies –proved beautifully elegant in its execution and a highly emotional journey for the audience; Layton chilled the blood with 2:22 A Ghost Story – showcasing some wonderfully naturalistic performances and equal measures of laughs and thrills; Kingsley’s War Horse tore on our heartstrings with some beautiful puppetry and stylistic storytelling, and featured a live band with original music composed by Tom Constantinou-Hickman (lower sixth); and Glenesk rounded off the night with a fabulously energetic Breakfast Club, featuring a delightful array of anarchic characters and antics!
For the adjudication, we were delighted to welcome back OK Luke Sumner, who took part in the original House Plays Festival in 2010 (and won with a script he wrote and directed) and who now works as a professional actor. He praised the incredible passion, creativity and collaboration of the companies, celebrated the huge array of dramatic choices and expert execution, and awarded the following prizes:
• Best Play – Major’s The Giver (directed by Theo Bonding, Izzy Sermon and Zach Mohamed – all lower sixth)
• Best Ensemble – Glenesk’s The Breakfast Club
• Best Physical Storytelling – Kingsley’s War Horse
It was a spectacular showcase of dramatic talent, skill, dedication and collaboration, and it was particularly wonderful to see the pupils so warmly celebrating each other, as well as so many family, friends and staff supporting the students in the audience.
Miss D Barron
Only a few weeks into their GCSE Drama course, 17 lower fifth pupils signed up to be part of a production in our drama studio, which I directed. In a short period of focused rehearsal, they created a slick, dynamic and physical version of Georg Büchner’s fractured, unfinished 1836 play Woyzeck. It tells the story of Franz Woyzeck, an ordinary soldier driven mad by jealousy, an unfair society and a world that seems pitted against him. The company, which included a lighting designer, successfully summoned a strange and nightmarish world.
Mr J Trapmore
U5 EXAM SCENES
The upper fifth GCSE Drama pupils crowned their course with blisteringly energized performances of scenes from classic modern plays, including The Pillowman, Art, A Monster Calls, Josef K and Death and the Maiden. These were presented both to the public and then to a visiting examiner. We were proud to show off our pupils’ range, depth of skill and creative flair.
Mr J Trapmore
All fourth formers who study Drama honed their collaborative and performance skills by selecting, rehearsing and performing a duologue. Following heats in class, 24 pupils were selected to perform their duologue on the Collyer Hall Theatre stage in front of an audience of peers and parents. Our adjudicator was actor and OK Luke Sumner, fresh from a lengthy West-End stint playing Scorpius Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. All finalists acquitted themselves very well, delivering scenes that were by turns touching, dynamic, hilarious and thought-provoking. The runners-up prize was awarded to Nikhil Raizada and Hamish Whelan for their deftly naturalistic performance from Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons by Sam Steiner. The overall winners were Noah Hayward and George Macklin for their witty and beautifully poised interpretation of Constellations by Nick Payne.
Mr J Trapmore
The upper fifth GCSE Drama pupils presented an assessed performance in front of parents of four original pieces of theatre: Dumbshow, Blunt Lives, Four Brothers and Bury the Hatchet. Between them, these short plays dealt thoughtfully and dynamically with themes of power, grief, trauma, bereavement and the ties that bind us as humans. Each piece was acted with conviction: they were by turns deeply moving, dynamic and humorous.
Mr J Trapmore
As part of their final assessment for A level Drama, the upper sixth students presented an exciting array of extracts from published play texts for the visiting examiner. The scenes included Hamlet’s desperate plea for courage in the face of his voyage to England; a heart-wrenching monologue from Pinter’s The Caretaker, in which Aston remembers the horrors of his electro-convulsive therapy; a chilling duologue from The Collector where a lost soul called Clegg imprisons the enigmatic Miranda, hoping to convince her to fall in love with him: and a dynamic movement piece in the style of Frantic Assembly using Peter Shaffer’s Equus, about a troubled young boy and his worship of horses. Equus was also lighting designed by a student for assessment, in the striking and atmospheric style of Paule Constable. This gripping and intense evening of drama was testament to the talent and dedication of this wonderful A level set.
Miss H Feeny
The lower sixth A level Drama pupils presented two exciting pieces of original devised work, in the grotesque and unnerving style of theatre practitioner Steven Berkoff. Cut! explored the ‘Golden Age’ of 1950s Hollywood, delving into the smoky audition rooms and corrupt industry behind the glamour of the silver screen, while in Bodysnatchers, we met Burke and Hare, a pair of 1820s grave-robbers turned serial killers, on their doomed journey from the anatomy lecture theatre to the hangman’s rope. These darkly comic, highly visceral and inventive pieces of original theatre delighted and horrified their audience in equal measure!
Miss H Feeny
Our lower sixth A level and IB pupils gave well-received public performances of their coursework scenes. Both classes were exploring challenging texts by Shakespeare: the devastating tragedy of King Lear for the Theatre Studies A level class, and the ambiguous, beguiling The Tempest for the IB Literature and Performance pupils. All gave intelligent and sensitive interpretations of their roles and scenes.
Mr J Trapmore
PERFORMANCE TRANSFORMATIONFATHERLAND
The upper sixth IB Literature & Performance pupils presented their transformation piece, a fast-paced thriller inspired by Robert Harris’ famous Fatherland, which explores the world in the 1960s had Hitler won the War. With equal parts action and emotion, the audience were on the edge of their seats as the cast dextrously multi-roled and imaginatively staged their dark adventure.
Miss D Barron
1st
Il a mangé un sandwich
Au café.
Il a mis le beurre dans le sandwich
Au café
Pendant qu’il a regardé par la fenêtre
Penser à la journée
Sans me parler.
Il pleuvait dehors,
Pleuvait fort.
Le parc était calme
La rivière traverse,
Traverse la brume.
Alors qu’il était assis
À lire son journal
Tout seul
Sans un son
Sans me parler.
Il a mis mon manteau
Et il a pris ton parapluie
Avant de sortir sous la pluie
À midi.
Il a écouté la circulation
Sur les Champs-Elysées
Est allé vers le bureau
Sans me parler.
Sans me regarder.
Mon frère est un homme seul
Mais il est mon seul frère
Mais je sais qu’il est gentil
Donc je resterai avec lui
Toujours.
Veer Sahni (fourth form)
On 11th May, I was given the opportunity to judge the fourth form French Poetry Competition. It was inspiring to see the hard work and enthusiasm of all the different participants in their adaptations of “Déjeuner du Matin” by Jacques Prévert. They were judged on their delivery, pronunciation, and complexity. The standard of the written poetry was incredibly high, with our language assistants Miss Durieu and Miss Marissal finding it very difficult to shortlist candidates. The delivery was just as impressive to listen to, with some stand-out performances from Veer Sahni (1st place), Matteo Herbst (2nd place), Sam Salwan (3rd place). Congratulations to all those who took part!
Riya Gupta (lower sixth)
2nd
Il y avait toujours quelque chose, Obstruant, détruisant, supprimant, Mais quand la 14ème année est arrivée, ils ont tous semblé insignifiants,
Comparé aux problèmes qui nous ont volés, Qui ont pris nos proches, nos amis ; Qui nous ont fait nous recroqueviller dans la peur et la soumission,
Alors que ceux qui ont dit qu’ils nous dirigent,
Ne faisaient que nous envoyer au casse-pipe pour régler leur querelle, Et pendant que nous attendions notre pitance,
Alors que nos terres et la terre de nos alliés était détruite et marquée, Par les traces de pas des Landsers, Qui eux-mêmes avaient été placés là, Comme les pions d’un jeu d’échecs qu’on leur disait noble,
Ceux qui se disent rois vautrés dans le luxe, Et même si ce n’est pas nous qui avons commencé,
C’est nous qui avons été envoyés pour l’arrêter,
Et à travers les jours, les nuits et les batailles, Nous l’avons fait.
Matteo Herbst (fourth form)
3rd
Il a voulu être astronaute.
Il a voulu se tenir sur la Lune.
Et voir les étoiles
Il est donc allé au magasin
Et il a acheté cinquante ballons.
Quand il est rentré chez lui,
Il a gonflé les ballons
Et il a commencé à attacher les ballons
À une petite chaise
Il a mis un bocal à poissons sur sa tête,
Il a pris une épingle dans la boîte à couture
Et bientôt il a décollé
Il n’a pas dit au revoir à ses parents.
Il n’a pas dit au revoir à ses amis.
Il ne m’a pas dit au revoir.
Il a décollé
Et il n’est jamais revenu.
Sam Salwan (fourth form)
On Thursday 24th November, two teams of four sat down to debate the hotly controversial question: “La France a-telle un devoir de réparation envers les pays qu’elle a anciennement colonisés?” - Does France have a duty of reparation towards the countries it formerly colonized? On the “pour” team – lower sixth French pupils Sasha Mueller, Charlie Higginson, Céleste Aperghis, and Joshua Cheong. Facing them – Iona Ratnayake, Izzy Sermon, Fin Perry and Nick Harder joined from the upper sixth.
A pre-vote was taken before the debate to determine the initial opinions of the audience, the results showed a roughly even split – it promised to be “un concours captivant”.
The debate was fierce. Strong points were put forward by both teams, including ideas concerning the need for moral justice vs the threat of neocolonialism. During the “lutte acharnée” (literally – the tug-of-war) which was the open section
of the debate introduced as a nod to the House of Commons, frequent vehement outbursts of !vous vous trompez!” and “je ne suis pas du tout d’accord!” were exclaimed in refutation. The discussion was then opened to the audience, who were able to pose questions to both teams which required quick thinking in order to give developed and rounded responses.
The process of our French play can be best described as an intensive, collaborative experience. The comedic play we devised, Emilie in Morzine, was based on the series Emily in Paris. Our version involved a hapless aspiring actress, with a terribly strong English accent, coming to terms with her major mistake: misreading the French BAFA Organisation – a skiing program for young children – for the BAFTAs.
After writing the play ourselves prior to the February half term – and being vetted by French professionals – we found ourselves with only two and a half weeks to prepare for a performance in front of hundreds of fellow students from across London, and a panel of French judges. However, our spirit of teamwork and determination to pull off a stellar performance shone through. After plenty of lunchtime and after school sessions, we were nearly ready to perform. The final few days involved fine-tuning and pulling everything together for the final run-throughs. Our dress rehearsals were particularly memorable for the (chaotic) tango that Miss Marissal and Miss Durieu taught us just days before the performance, with Maja, our musician, providing
Closing arguments were given by Josh and Nick, and after a recount of the votes, the majority was found to have swung towards the “pour” team. Looking ahead, we are excited to be progressing to the regional round of the Joutes Oratoires national debating competition which will be hosted at St Paul’s Girls’ School.
Josh Cheong (lower sixth)
impressive violin-playing.
The performance night itself: with nerves settled after many games of I Spy and a good bit of Italian food from a local pizzeria, we were ready. After rousing many laughs from the audience, we were met with an enormous round of applause by the end. The other schools also performed very well, providing some very good entertainment for the evening.
With great surprise, I was called up to receive an award for “Best Actor in a Supporting Role”, an award which I owe fully to the dedication of the actors, our director Fin Perry, and the fantastic French assistants, Miss Marissal and Miss Durieu, who guided us, coordinated rehearsals, and ensured that our play was the best it could be; we all had a great time.
Emiliano Gallenzi (upper fifth)
On Thursday 13th October, a group of eight students from upper fifth to upper sixth set off to North London Collegiate School to attend the annual Hispanic Theatre Festival. Our chosen play was Buero Vallejo’s El Tragaluz which had been tirelessly cut and edited by the students and the brilliant Miss Kidwell.
As we made our way down to Wimbledon station, there was much chatting and excitement; especially since none of the students had attended the festival before. The journey was made to feel short with plenty of conversation and laughter and even a rehearsal on the tube. Once we arrived at NLCS, we felt a little more nervous as we saw our competition and the large theatre hall in which we would be performing. We settled into our seats to enjoy the plays ahead of us but it was soon our turn. We prepared ourselves backstage and, as director, I wished everyone luck before returning to my seat to watch.
The play’s first scene proved to be a strong start with our leads, John Macmillan and Freya Nott and as it developed everyone performed outstandingly – fusing the drama with a little comedy faultlessly. The rehearsals and time put into perfecting the play had paid off and the performance was wonderful, receiving a strong round of applause and plenty of cheering. We felt pleased with ourselves as we sat down to watch the rest of the performances; however, the nerves from before the performance returned as it was time for the
winners to be announced. Smaller prizes were handed out to other schools but shortly it was time for “Best Actor” and we crossed our fingers, hoping this would be our chance at a prize. As our lead actor, John Macmillan’s name was called out, we burst into congratulations and applause –proud, but not entirely surprised given the quality of his performance. A few more awards were called out, but shortly after John had returned, we heard “King’s College School” announced for the award of play with “Best Spoken Spanish”. I hurried down to collect our trophy, incredibly pleased with the performance that everyone had delivered. Once we were all seated again, we assumed that we had collected all of our prizes; nevertheless, our school’s name was called out again but this time for
On Wednesday 8th March, four lower sixth Spanish pupils headed to the North London Collegiate School to compete in the regional Spanish Debating Competition. Much preparation had taken place with the help of Srta Rodriguez in lessons, lunchtimes, and after-school, culminating in an internal debate on the monarchy. During the real event, the two teams (Sam Herbert and Felicity Tisdall, Benedict Holder and Freya Nott) debated on three topical issues including the existence of the monarchy, the impact of unisex toilets, and the potential repercussions of AI.
Both teams debated passionately on the motions against tough opposition from schools across the southeast. Ultimately, neither team progressed to the final stages, but nevertheless it was an invaluable experience for all. Indeed, Benedict described the debate as “providing a great opportunity to improve oral and critical thinking skills in a high-pressure environment, which will undoubtedly prove to be useful in the future” whilst Freya found that the debate “allowed her to extend her Spanish vocabulary in different areas, improving her writing and speaking skills.”
Sam Herbert (lower sixth)
the main prize of, “Best Play”. After many photos, congratulations, and smiles, we returned home extremely pleased with our well-earned success. Our achievement was the result of the hard work from Miss Kidwell and all of our actors: Emiliano Gallenzi, Maria Ivanova, Freya Nott, Toby Weston, Felicity Tisdall, Seb Virgo, John Macmillan and Mark Krukov. Miss Kidwell’s help and leadership along the way was essential to the realisation of the performance and it would never have come together as it did without her. She never ran out of enthusiasm and made the rehearsals thoroughly enjoyable – this was also partly thanks to the biscuits and ensaimadas that she brought along!
Elena Hawney-Muñoz (upper sixth)
On Thursday 2nd February, fifteen of the most promising lower fifth poets studying Spanish for IGCSE faced off in New Hall, in the Spanish Poetry Competition. Having beaten off competition from a pool of 46 pupils, and having written a poem imitating Neruda’s Oda a un Tomate, they were ready to showcase their talent. After the captivating recitals of the pupils’ poems, the judges, Miss Rodriguez, and two sixth form Spanish pupils – Freya Nott and Sophia Lovett-Turner - conferred amongst themselves, and shortly after announced the results. The judges had a difficult decision to make when choosing from the performances, as this year more than any other, many had learnt their poems well enough to make eye contact with the audience and their pronunciation and intonation were very impressive. Well done to all involved and for their certificates of commendation. Furthermore, a great congratulations to Alfie Edmondson for coming third, Antoine Dubreuil for being the runner up, and Matteo d’Allance de Melo for winning the competition, following his absorbing declamation of his poem. Tanush Malhotra (lower fifth)
1st
El campo sin ruido esperando señales de movimiento
La zanahoria enterrada junto a sus amigas esperando su gran momento.
Con paciencia quiere crecer
Ser la más grande, la más gorda, la más jugosa
Sus sueños son darle alegría a una familia
De comer la zanahoria la más sabrosa.
La nieve calle y el Día llega
Una mano la desentierra
Y ella ve un humano pequeño
Con una sonrisa de oreja a oreja.
La saca delicadamente
Con mucho cuidado y atención
Sacudiendo la tierra y revelando
Una piel naranja salmón.
La trae hasta un muñeco de nieve
Y la pone en su rostro
Sus amigas felices de que sea salvada para hacer algo más importante; Darle alegría a este niño.
By Matteo d’Allance de Melo
Un abrigo negro, Un fugaz destello, Del negro orgulloso.
2nd
Un chorrito de aceite, Una cintura resplandeciente, Hazme decirte:
« O aceituna, Eres tan hermosa, Cuando comerte podría? »
Ella mirame y me dice, «La paciencia es una de las mayores virtudes; apprenderas »
La aceituna pobla
El plato de verdura, Con su carne carnosa.
Y lo único que quiero hacer
Es hundir mis dientes
En la aceituna.
Antoine Dubreil (lower fifth)
3rd
Corta, corta, corta de una cebolla. Pica, pica, pica de una lechuga.
Finalmente se juntan con un poco de aceite.
Entonces es el tomate que cae desde arriba.
Un poco de sal y todo se mezcla, se mezcla, se mezcla.
La ensalada se pone en el plato al lado del pollo caliente.
¡Ahora debemos comer! Dios mío, Está delicioso.
Los sabores son geniales La ensalada con el pollo Todo está fenomenal. ¡Ay, como amo cocinar!
There have been many staff comings and goings in the Music department this year. Mr Duncan Fraser (head of lower school Music) and Dr Eleanor Thackrey (senior school teacher of Music) were both with us in the autumn term but then replaced by Mr George de Voil and Mr John Cotton. Meanwhile, on the support team, Miss Kasia Glancey has joined as Music school administrator with responsibility for all rehearsals and concerts and Mr Phil Chevassut as Music graduate assistant. All these staff members have brought musical and administrative excellence to the department.
Pupils continue to be highly successful in their diploma examinations, with fourteen this year, including Desmond Zee (upper fifth) gaining the prestigious LRSM for piano performance. Three pupils have gained places playing in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and three in the National Children’s Orchestra, whilst Lucas Dick (upper sixth) reached the category finals of the BBC Young Musician 2022, a first for King’s and a really impressive achievement. Later in the year, the U19 piano trio won their category in the Pro Corda chamber music competition, against sixteen entries from other schools in the finals alone.The standard was incredibly high and to win this award is a superb accomplishment. It’s really hard to pick out a highlight from a year of so many and varied performances, but perhaps two stand out. Firstly, it was an exciting moment when a second concert grand piano arrived in the concert hall for a fortnight of twopiano events. From a professional concert to a
pupil masterclass and concert, we were treated to some fabulous repertoire. The pupils are to be congratulated on some very fine duo playing indeed. Secondly, there was the Gala Choral and Orchestral Concert in Southwark Cathedral which involved some seventy pupils. Lucas Dick played Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto superbly in a memorable and sparkling performance, accompanied by the London Mozart Players, whilst Phoebe Gault and William Revill (both upper sixth) took the soprano and tenor roles in Bob Chilcott’s stirring Requiem, singing with poise and professionalism.
Congratulations to all the pupils who have performed throughout the year, and thanks to our excellent staff team of full-time and visiting teachers, as well as administrators.
Mr D Phillips
Filippo Varda ATCL (clarinet) (2022 leaver)
Izzy Staples ARSM (flute) (upper sixth)
Malachy McEvoy DipABRSM (piano) (2022 leaver)
Phoebe Gault DipABRSM (singing) (upper sixth)
Ethan Yan ARSM (clarinet) (lower fifth)
Xavier Cooke ATCL (classical guitar) (upper sixth)
Justin Zhang DipABRSM (piano) (upper fifth)
Desmond Zee LRSM (piano) (upper fifth)
Helena Bhattacharya DipABRSM (piano) (2022 leaver)
Reis Fernandes DipABRSM (piano) (upper fifth)
Qasim Choudry ARSM (lower fifth) (orchestral percussion)
Una Ding ARSM (clarinet) (lower sixth)
Jonny Woodnutt ARSM (clarinet) (upper sixth)
Gus Graham ARSM (saxophone) (lower sixth)
Every two years there is a major external concert involving our most talented singers, instrumentalists and soloists. For this year’s performance in Southwark Cathedral, pupils were joined by King’s Choral Society (parents, staff and friends) and the fabulous London Mozart Players.
PROGRAMME
Mendelssohn – Hebrides Overture
Mozart – Clarinet Concerto INTERVAL
Handel – The King shall rejoice Chilcott – Requiem
Soprano – Phoebe Gault Chamber Choir
Tenor – William Revill Coro
Clarinet – Lucas Dick London Mozart Players
Choral Society Conductor – Daniel Phillips
The chamber choir has sung Evensongs in St Matthew’s and St John’s Churches locally, as well as in Chichester and St Paul’s Cathedrals and the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace. In September, they sang at assemblies to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s death and, on the eve of the Coronation in May, they gave a rousing rendition of Parry’s much-loved anthem I was glad. A highlight of the choir’s calendar is the annual soirée which took place on the final Saturday evening of the school year, with a chance to showcase the talent of the upper sixth and wish them farewell.
Christmas was celebrated across the school with carol services for every year group. The Community Carol Service took place on the final Monday of term in St John’s Church whilst the annual Christmas Concert was again held in St James’s Piccadilly in a suitably festive programme. Cambiata, lower school choir, coro and King’s 9 also sang at various other school services and concerts throughout the year.
There was an exceptional choral concert full of impressive and polished performances by coro and King’s 9 at the end of the spring term. The year also saw the advent of a middle school choir who gave their debut in the summer term. Also that term, singers from the lower school choir benefitted from a superb workshop with Redhot and Blue, a choir from Yale University. They sang alongside this inspiring ensemble as well as performing in their own right in an evening
concert, whilst cambiata sang confidently in a joint concert with the International School of Monaco.
Many of our singers were involved in the impressive Gala Choral and Orchestral Concert in Southwark Cathedral in March which involved some seventy pupils. They were joined by parents, ex-parents, staff and friends in the Choral Society Choir, as well as members of the London Mozart Players in this exciting concert.
Mr D Phillips
House Music Solo Middle school
House Music Solo Sixth form
Julian Ketelsen (upper fifth)
Lucas Dick (upper sixth)
Battle of the Bands Middle and sixth form Layton
Singing Lower school
Singing Middle school
Singing Sixth form
Strings Lower school
Strings Middle school
Strings Sixth form
Woodwind Lower school
Woodwind Middle school
Woodwind Sixth form
Brass Lower school
Brass Middle school
Brass Sixth form
Organ Intermediate
Organ Sixth form
Piano Lower school
Piano Intermediate
Piano Senior
Milo Lennon (year 8)
Arvind Benedict (lower fifth)
William Revill (upper sixth)
Aidan Zhao (year 7)
Julian Ketelsen (upper fifth)
Sassan Bhanji (upper sixth)
Louis Spadano (year 7)
Isaac Epstein (upper fifth)
Lucas Dick (upper sixth)
Horatio Mackie (year 8)
Ben Clarke (lower fifth)
Tyr Hogsander (upper sixth)
Arvin Kinigama (lower fifth)
Ivan Yurchenko (lower sixth)
Nathan Thomas (year 7)
Ethan Yan (lower fifth)
Desmond Zee (upper fifth)
In the autumn term, as well as a band showcase, the big band played superbly at Fireworks, together with two pupil bands who also took to the main performing stage. In the spring term, there was an exceptional Jazz Club Evening, featuring the big band, jazz combos and saxophone quartet; a band showcase offering the opportunity for many younger pupil bands to perform and the ever-popular House Battle of the Bands. Whilst, in the summer term, a further two band showcases took place, one of which was part of the King’s Arts celebrations. Both were full of budding young talent, with impressive performances from all the bands. The big band’s final performance of the year featured well-crafted arrangements by three members of the group.
Mr D Phillips
Throughout the year, there have been three truly excellent Music Scholars’ Recitals with an impressive level of performance demonstrated from pupils from lower school up to sixth form. In addition, each term there have been three informal concerts, giving opportunities for all those wanting to try out pieces ready for examinations and competitions, or just to air a new piece. Competitions for brass, woodwind, strings, singing, organ and piano have also seen huge numbers of pupils performing solos. The Piano Competition regularly sees over a hundred entrants, whilst many take part in the House Music Competitions with the chance to perform in front of hundreds of their peers in the finals. All of these featured performances of the highest standard with renowned external adjudicators. In the summer term, there was a first, with a music technology showcase, in which twelve pupils shared their work through introducing recorded performances. This proved motivational for the pupils, who otherwise are not able to experience the camaraderie of group work. The success of the event has meant we plan to put on two such showcases next academic year.
Mr D Phillips
There have been exciting and compelling performances from the symphony orchestra, with Sassan Bhanji (upper sixth) playing Bruch’s Violin Concerto no 1 as well as Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Piazzolla’s Libertango and music from Star Wars, whilst the wind orchestra has covered music from Pirates of the Caribbean and Thunderbirds. For the second year running, sinfonia joined the symphony orchestra in the Summer Term Concert for an energetic, massed performance of Eric Coates’s Dambusters March that delighted the audience. The chamber orchestra has meanwhile played Corelli, Bach, Mozart and Elgar in some polished performances. Each term there has been a lower and middle school concert featuring ensemble performances, both choral and orchestral, showcasing some notable talent in groups including concert band and guitar ensemble.
Mr D Phillips
In a term that was hugely affected by waterlogged pitches and poor weather, it was fantastic to get the number of fixtures played that we did. We had seven teams from 1st – 7th XI representing King’s and they all played in multiple fixtures. The 7th XI had a fantastic 4-2 win against Fulham School, which was the highlight of their season. Cedars was one of multiple new fixtures in the calendar and the 6th XI put in a fantastic Wednesday afternoon performance. Just after half term, Whitgift travelled to Kingsway. The 5th XI played one of their performances of the season to win 7-0 with some champagne football. They then went on to go one better when they beat Harrodian 8-0 later in the term, topping off a fantastic term.
For the first time in a number of years, we added St Paul’s back onto our fixture list. It was a fantastic occasion to have pupils from U12-U18 representing King’s that day. The 4th XI produced their performance of the term to win 2-1 in a game they dominated for large parts. The 5th XI played their performance of the term against local rivals Wimbledon College, winning 5-1, with one of the goals of the season by Raaid Akhtar (upper sixth).
The 2nd XI had two excellent cup runs this term but unfortunately were knocked out on penalties not once, but twice first against Hampton and then Mill Hill. The performance
of the term for the 2nd XI was against City of London School for Boys with an excellent 4-2 win on a wet and windy Wednesday afternoon. Some would say these conditions suited the 2nd XI style of play this term.
Finally, the 1st XI had a standout term with some outstanding performances. They started the term by beating the OKC team 6-3 – the first win in 5 years. In Saturday blocks they had wins against Hampton (3-0), Wimbledon College (7-1), Whitgift (7-0) and St John’s
Leatherhead (8-2). They got to the final of the Trinity Cup where they unfortunately lost 2-0 to a well organised Alleyn’s side but were very much in the game for the majority of it. Overall, it has been a very rewarding and exciting term for senior football, with plenty of positives and progress made. I would like to wish the upper sixth good luck in their future footballing careers and looking forward to next year’s cohort of players.
Mr J Barrington
Our first XI season started in the autumn term with the national Independent Schools Football Association (ISFA) tournament, and a trip to Oxford to face St Clare’s School. A dominant 12-0 win ensued and sent us into the next round against Abingdon.
Despite going ahead early, missed chances and lackadaisical defending meant it seemed at one point we might be left to rue missed chances. However, we managed to squeeze though 4-3, and set up a mouth-watering tie away at Dulwich in the third round. A superb all-round performance in front of a feisty crowd gave us a 4-0 victory.
Eagerly anticipating the draw for the fourth round, the boys were desperate for a road trip, and a road trip we got: a trip to Shrewsbury School, one of the tournament favourites. Goals from Seb Greenhalgh (upper sixth) and Adam Poliakov (upper fifth) gave us a deserved 2-0 lead shortly after halftime, though our spirits were dampened when we had a perfectly good goal ruled out; a decision arguably worse than that of Frank Lampard’s “goal that never was” in the 2010 World Cup. Unfortunately, despite being 2-0 with 20 minutes to play, a combination of injuries and fatigue was our undoing, and we fell to a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat with pretty much the final kick of the game.
Our regular season consisted of huge wins against the OKC team, local rivals Wimbledon College, ACS Cobham, City of London Boys’ School, and St. John’s.
However, with back-to-back matches cancelled due to frozen pitches, we lost momentum, and fell to a disappointing defeat against St Paul’s, before losing on penalties to UCS in the second round of the London Cup. These were both games we felt we could and probably should have won.This meant confidence was slightly low heading into this year’s Friday Night Lights fixture, a rematch against Duwich at Carshalton Athletic FC. However, a fast start saw us race into a 3-0 lead
in the first half. Unfortunately a combination of mistakes and misfortune saw the game end 3-3, another game we felt we should have won.
Eager to make amends, we travelled to Hampton in the quarter final of the Trinity Cup, and were 1-0 at half-time, thanks to a stunning Ahmed Alshubaily (upper sixth) free-kick, whipped into the top corner from 25 yards out. Shortly after half time, Max Edwards-Warrener (upper sixth) extended our lead and, despite going down to ten men with 15 minutes to play, a late goal sealed the victory. This was the first 1st XI win against Hampton for 12 years and sent us into the semi-final, where we were drawn against Whitgift. A tough draw… on paper.
A change in tactical thinking from Mr Barrington saw ‘Bazball’ take footballing form, as we switched from the 4-3-3 we had been accustomed to playing, to an unusual 4-1-1-4 formation. With the gaffer’s new tactics being sprung upon on us just 24 hours before the
game, we were ever so slightly apprehensive about how it might play out against one of the best footballing schools in the country. However, we dominated from the first minute to the last, eventually winning 7-0.
The final of the Trinity Cup against Alleyn’s took place after the Easter break and unfortunately, we fell to a disappointing 2-0 defeat in our final game of the season.
For me personally, in my 11th and final year of football at King’s, I’d like to thank my teammates for their incredible hard-work on the pitch and great humour off it, which has made it a hugely enjoyable season. I’d also like to thank Mr Barrington and Mr Tuck for their tireless work throughout the season. Their unwavering enthusiasm and belief have culminated in an incredibly successful season, and I’d like to wish them, and King’s football as a whole, every success in the years to come.
Sam Hoyes (upper sixth)
In a season blighted by the poor weather, there was however much to be excited about when talking of under 16 football here at King’s. With 85 pupils registered to play, our largest cohort yet, competition for places tough, and in fact some of the best ”fixtures” of the term were those between A and B, or C and D sides as they battled for selection. The A squad will look back on “what might have been” in a number of matches, and in particularly against Brighton College on a Saturday where almost all sport had been cancelled. It was painful to be 1-0 up at half time, only to lose 2-1, with a journey back up the entirety of the M23 to think about it. The local derby against St Paul’s finished in a draw with some resolute defensive work. It was perhaps our best team performance of the term. Block fixtures against the likes of Hampton, Dulwich College, and St John’s are excellent for us as a school as they give us the opportunity to get our U16B, C, D, and hopefully E sides out in the future. Whilst the weather put pay to some, it was great to see so many pupils out representing their school so enthusiastically, and now it will be great to see those pupils continue on playing into the sixth form. Which teams they find themselves in in the spring term will be the exciting question!
Mr R McCluskey
The U15s had a successful campaign as the pupils displayed their talent in style across competitive games of football. It was a rather jumbled up season this time round, but the pupils didn’t let this affect them as their motivation to represent the school and be involved in U15 football was certainly at its highest. Club numbers soared and with this came brilliant performances. It was clear to see that this year group were super keen to be involved and were also capable of great things.
The highlight of the season for the U15A was certainly their demolition of rivals Wimbledon College as their fast start caught their opponents off guard and before they knew it, they found themselves 5-0 up at half-time, and with the Veo (sports camera) being a timely addition, they ran out 9-1 winners. The 15B team also had a successful season as they won four out of their five games. Mr Lyle did an excellent job in playing to their strengths and the pupils reaped their rewards with their standout performance versus Whitgift away, where they kept a clean sheet and won 1-0.
The U15C team displayed that the depth in this year group is simply sublime, and they have
pushed each other throughout the year to get better and better. They grew stronger as the year went on and showed real class at times, displaying an abundance of talent to remain unbeaten in their last three games. The highlight for them was their 1-0 win over Epsom College as they defended stoutly and executed a great clean sheet. Mr Jones’s U15D team also showed that they were undoubtedly a good side and remained unbeaten across the season. Their highlight was their great win against Whitgift 2-1 as the feel-good factor continued to flow throughout the year group.
The U15 E & F teams also showed great standards throughout the season, acting as great role models for others and a superb advert for mass participation in King’s sport. Like the above teams, it was a disrupted season, but this didn’t stop them as they gained great wins against Fulham School and Ewell Castle where the E teams played against the oppositions B teams and the F team had a great win against Epsom College.
Lastly, the support this year has been fantastic. It was simply brilliant to see so many supporters attending fixtures and so many pupils representing the school!
Mr B James
The U14A had a rollercoaster start to the year, with two poor results but some flashes of what the team can produce. In an away fixture against Hampton, a lead taken within 8 minutes from a good team press, partnered with a great finish, was then undone by set pieces. However, what followed was the highlight of the season: a 3-1 win against Whitgift. The performance was filled with hard work, quality and some tactical nous, securing a great victory. It was a performance that epitomised the team, embracing the big
moments and delivering. The standout for this group was the approach to everything they did; they held themselves to a high standard. The change in formation, accompanied with playing on bigger pitches, made it difficult at times but their willingness to take on board instructions and execute them meant the technical, tactical, and psychological growth in this team has been outstanding.
The Bs had a very good season, playing quick and direct football and punishing mistakes. They played A teams and secured wins, playing the right way, being led by their captain Felix Fielding (fourth form). They lost key members of their team to the As but did not impact their performance levels and continued to round out a very good campaign which pleased Mr Brooker.
The Cs were superb this year, unbeaten all year until the final game of the season away at Epsom when they were undone in the 9th minute of injury time. Games were physical
and played to their strengths, quick counter attacking football slickly finished whilst resolute defending to feed their appetite for clean sheets. This was a season of which Mr Broderick cannot speak highly enough of the boys!
The quality of the D team showed the strength in depth of this year group. Led by Mr Saxton, they beat Claremont Bs 4-2 and drew 2-2 with Emmanuel Bs showing they can certainly compete. Ewan Berry (fourth form) scoring for fun and ripping defences apart.
The E and F teams trained well, worked hard, and took on instructions. This was shown with an excellent 7-1 win against Fulham School, utilising the width of the pitch, attacking the box, and whipping crosses into the box.
84 pupils represented the school at U14 level this year, with each of them putting in tremendous effort and commitment to training sessions and matches. It was a thoroughly enjoyable season for all involved.
Mr A De Havilland
The football season was a bit unfamiliar this year with it being the first time playing 11-a-side in school. The U13s started their campaign back in the autumn term with the ISFA cup, where a select few travelled to Brighton to play their match. Despite being in off season, the pupils involved trained very well and gave it their all but were unfortunately second best on the day. Moving into the spring term, it was a shame the first game of the season against Hampton got cancelled due to bad weather but the U13s faced Wimbledon College next, where all teams were victorious and set high standards moving forward.
Ewell Castle were up next for the U13C and E team who were settling into their new formations and starting to play some neat football, which resulted in two very close matches. Whilst those teams played Ewell Castle, the others travelled to Wilson’s for their matches and battled hard in tough conditions, once again with some mixed results. St Paul’s were the next opponents and this was going to be the match of the season. This was proven in the results: we lost 2, drew 2 and won 2 – a very balanced fixture. A special mention goes
to the A team who dug in deep against the toughest opponents they played all season, and hung on to a 1-0 win by showing great discipline and resilience.
As we progressed through the season, it was great to see the pupils improving and was evident in the results from all teams especially the D, E, F and G teams who earned a clean sweep against Emanuel. With the A and B team also beating Emanuel a little later in the term, it set us up nicely for the final fixture of the year: St John’s. Well done to the B and C teams for finishing off their season in style against a very tough St John’s team, providing great motivation going into next year.
House Football was a blast with the houses battling it out for the title of champions, but there could only be one winner. A big well done to Glenesk for ruling the football pitch for 2023. Finally, a big well done to every individual for their efforts during training, where they took on board all the information and as a result, we saw a massive improvement technically, physically and tactically. It was fantastic to see such high attendance and most importantly, everyone enjoying playing their football. We all look forward to next year!
Mr L YatesThe influx of 100 new pupils seeking to make the top team possible and everyone trying to find their feet in the teams makes U12s an exciting year for the pupils. It was incredible to see the level of competition in this year’s group, especially with so many goalkeepers. We thought a quick start versus Hampton after only a week of training would be difficult. The pupils came away with two wins out of five and some excellent performances in their first King’s football games. Unfortunately, we were hit by some inclement weather, which caused a small break in fixtures but provided the students with time to get to know their teammates, while also getting some black rubber in those astros. Next up was Wimbledon
College, where we came away with three wins out of five. After this game, it was evident that the pupils were beginning to understand how King’s football should be played. Then came the difficult job of St Paul’s, which resulted in the 12A’s lone loss of the season, with the other teams going away with wins and draws. Next up was Thomas’s Battersea, where we witnessed the term’s first clean sweep, with overwhelming performances
from all teams engaged. One more game versus Emanuel will complete the season with a mixed bag of outcomes for all teams. It was evident from the start that this year’s group has a very special depth of skill, and it will be exciting to see how they progress in future years at King’s. I’m excited to follow this adventure and see how far they can go on a national scale.
Mr L O’Sullivan
Senior school tennis enjoyed a fun and dynamic term, with the highest participation numbers on record and a fantastic set of results. There were singles, doubles and mixed doubles competitions throughout the year groups which were played at a brilliant level. Highlights were the Family Tennis event which was a big hit across all age groups with 40 parent and child pairs participating in the event. We were also proud to host the first mixed doubles competition for U18s at Kingsway, as well as great Wimbledon Charter events with Wimbledon High. There were picturesque views as the stunning King’s backdrop played host to vigorous practices and fiercely fought competition.
The U18 girls had one of the best terms for as long as I can remember. They competed in two semi-finals and a final. The girls always made the most of every opportunity and practice, and they reaped the rewards with some outstanding performances. The improvement across the term was fantastic and it saw them go from strength to strength, ending the term in great fashion: they came runners-up in the Branston Shield; lost in the semi-finals of the Surrey League to a strong Caterham side; and then ended the term at the National Schools Championships at Eton. Lucy KingChristopher and Jemima Richmond Caunt (both lower sixth) did superbly to get out of their knockout group, but eventually lost to King’s High School, Warwick in the cup. Due to their superb results, they then entered the plate, where they had a stunning run, beating some strong opposition before losing out to eventual winners Rugby School in the semi-final.
I cannot speak highly enough of all the girls who were involved in the tennis programme this term, it is certainly one which will live long in the memory. Special mentions must go to our superb upper sixth leavers, Manuela Villa Topple and Eloise Broyden who played a major role in the tennis programme over the years as well as Anna Farmer and Izzy Atwell who battled hard with their tennis
The U18 boys had a highly successful campaign. The upper fifth, lower sixth and upper sixth combined to great effect across the season as the boys played host to many great block fixtures. It was a thoroughly rewarding season as they managed to continue their great development from last year through achieving some fantastic results. They made the final of the Surrey League, eventually losing out 6-3 to Ewell Castle to become runners-up. They also did brilliantly to get through to the third round of the National Championships where they eventually lost out to a strong Reading Blue Coat School side. They also travelled to Eton and despite beating Abingdon in a brilliant first round, illness got the better of us and we had to forfeit the next round. Nonetheless all the pupils must be very proud of all their outstanding efforts.
Special mentions must go to pupils who drove the programme forward Alexis Droulers (upper sixth), Maxime Fery (upper fifth), Max Webber (lower sixth), Adrien Donin de Rosiere (lower sixth), Kasper Skrumsager (upper sixth), Valentino Di Bon (lower sixth), Kieran Johnston Bustos (upper sixth), and Edward Amor (lower sixth).
Most improved players in the U18 league
Boys 1st Team Kieran Johnston Bustos Alexis Droulers
Boys 2nd Team Valentino Di Bon Angus Barker (lower sixth)
Boys 3rd Team Luke Fitzgerald Rex Levitt-Malik (lower sixth) (lower sixth)
The U14 age group went from strength to strength as the season went on. They showcased their talent with some excellent crafty doubles performances which saw them perform well in all of their block fixtures. With no Surrey League for the U14s, some pupils got the opportunity to represent the U15s in the Surrey League and also in the national competitions.
Nonetheless, it was certainly a very positive campaign for the boys as they made the most of every session and match as 54 pupils got an opportunity to represent the school. All pupils played a huge part in the year group’s success but special mentions must go to Veer Sahni, Nicolas Oliveira, Theodore Rolfsen and Oscar Tostivin, who played a vital role at the forefront of the fourth form year group.
Most improved players in the U14 league (all fourth form)
U14A Miron Ananyev Veer Sahni
U14B Ritik Mukherjee Harry Hull
U14C Tom Winter Teddy Roscoe
U14D Omer Oz Keson Lin
The U15s battled hard this term. They had a great campaign in their block fixtures but failed to get over the line in the Surrey League as they lost out in many tight games to some very strong sides. However, they were extremely successful in the National Championships, despite eventually losing out in the last 16 to a strong Abingdon side. Their attitude and commitment to the programme was exemplary and it was superb to see so many pupils attending club and improving their games considerably. A massive 72 pupils chose tennis this term and I commend them all for their fantastic efforts. Special mentions must go to Alexander Annesanti, Charlie Kolff, Nicholas Kram, Fabian Lenkiewicz, Toby Oussedik, Safin Sheikh, Harvey Webber and Benjamin Slattery (all lower fifth).
Most improved players in the U15 league (all lower fifth)
U15A Safin Sheikh Fabian Lenkiewiecz
U15B Lucas Edwards Louis Trabaud
U15C Luke Belderbos Davide Di Conno
U15D Joseph Brannigan Joe Winser
The U13s also completed a good campaign. Miss Rawlings’ great management saw the students go from strength to strength. They faced a tough task in their Surrey League group and with some fantastic team efforts they made it to finals day. The highlight of the term was certainly getting all 62 students at least two opportunities to represent the school, which was fantastic, and they did this with great maturity. It was brilliant to see so many students playing and choosing the sport this term and I thank them for their great efforts throughout. The term was capped off in style with the U13s Surrey League team being crowned champions and the pair of Luka Cory-Wright (year 8) and Jack Dawson (year 7 –U12) playing superbly at National Championships eventually losing out to eventual winners UCS in a brilliant quarter final. Special mentions must go to all the pupils for another brilliant term, but in particular the Surrey League team of Luka CoryWright, Samuel Garner, Kirill Zakharyan, Enrique Del Rio Virseda, Charlie Dey, William Moret, Freddie Moudiotis and Daniel Fisch (all year 8).
Most improved players in the U13 league (all year 8)
U13A Freddie Moudiotis Samuel Garner
U13B Rocco Castelvetri Jonathan Plith
U13C Nicholas Chen Giovanni Di Nisio
U13D Oliver Hutton Abhigyan Mukund
U13E Joel Hene Gleb Terekhov
The U12s had a splendid season. Mixing mass participation with our ability to compete at the highest level was always going to be tricky, however it was great to see so many pupils representing the school. Mr Yates ran this age group with great success, giving the students an abundance of opportunities to compete and challenge themselves. The pupils experienced fun dynamic lessons in which they improved through a sequence of lessons. As a group the U12s had a superb set of results throughout the season, winning impressively in nearly all of their block fixtures. It was also capped off in style as the U12 Surrey League team were crowned Surrey League runners-up and the pair of Archie Whitaker and Zaal Owen (both year 7) were crowned National Plate Champions at Eton.
Special mentions must go to all the pupils for another brilliant term, but in particular the Surrey League team of Jack Dawson, Zaal Owen, Archie Whitaker, Thomas Millar, Elliott Jago, Theodore Vladimirov, Felix Cooke, Ashvin Waegner, Glen Ding and Daniel Carter (all year 7).
Most improved players in the U12 league (all year 7)
U12A Elliott Jago
U12B Maxim Matteen
U12C Sunny Wu
U12D Alvaro Camara
U12E Hayden Liu
U12F Tate McKenzie
Jack Dawson
Leander Offerhaus
Yannis Paschopoulos
Sebastian Davis
Sebastian Sinclair
Sean Malus
Lastly, it is great to see so many of the pupils representing county and national teams. Oliver Bonding (upper sixth) must be commended for his fantastic efforts throughout the year, reaching a career high of 40 in the Junior World Rankings and competing at Wimbledon Juniors. OKs Arthur Fery and Joe Salisbury continue to impress in the men’s game. Arthur produced a stunning performance in the first round of Wimbledon as he received his first main draw wildcard, eventually losing out 7-5, 6-4, 6-3. Joe has had another great year as well and we look forward to hearing about more success from all the pupils for years to come. It was certainly a brilliant term and I thank all the fantastic staff for their wonderful assistance with sessions and the external coaches with the endless amounts of ideas and fun. It was a brilliant start to a very strange time, and we are thoroughly looking forward to the future.
Tennis at King’s is in a very exciting place as there are endless amounts of talent across all age groups and we are very much looking forward to showing this off Mr B James
Despite one of wettest starts to a season in recent memory, there was a huge amount of success across all of the senior cricket teams this year.
Following the pre-season festival at Bradfield College, the 1st XI began the season targeting a good run in the National T20 competition whilst also recording some victories in the longer format of the game on Saturdays and during cricket week.The former got off to a perfect start as we progressed through the first two rounds comfortably beating Kingston Grammar and Tiffin with Adam Fox (upper fifth) scoring an impressive century against the latter. St George’s were our third round opponents and an exhibition in ball striking from captain Seth Eley (upper sixth) set the tone for a superb victory. This followed on from his 95* against the same opponents earlier in the season.
The fourth round against Epsom College was played in searing heat and it was Seth again who led the way with the bat, smashing another 64 in quick time. However, a big total proved not enough, as Epsom chased down the target of 180 thanks in large part to an impressive 90 from their number 3.
In the longer format, there was a remarkable victory against St John’s Leatherhead from a highly unlikely situation. St John’s were cruising as they chased a low total before Max Bonomini (lower sixth) came into the attack to take an astonishing 6-19 to leave St John’s 20 runs short of the target in an incredible turnaround.
Other notable victories came against the
two adult sides we played in the MCC and Free Foresters. Adam Fox (61), Ollie Richards (upper fifth - 42) and Sam Hoyes (upper sixth - 45) made light work of chasing 175 to give the team a first victory over the MCC for several years. The Free Foresters were beaten on the final ball of the game with Max Bonomini the hero again, taking the 10th and final wicket to jubilant scenes!
Following the controversial Australian victory at Lord’s, the team were excited to have our own Ashes battle against The Hutchins School from Tasmania. It was wonderful to host such a friendly touring party and King’s came out on top of a good game of cricket, thanks to 50s from Seth and Arjun Nandi (lower sixth) after Arjun also took 5 wickets for an impressive individual performance.
Adam and Seth both scored over 500 runs and were supported by Sam and Ollie who scored over 400. With the ball, Vihaan Weerasinghe (upper sixth) was the standout with his leg spin taking 28 wickets at 21.64 and the short format specialist, Cian Newland (upper sixth), returned 20 wickets at 15.75.
The 2nd XI were tipped to be one of the stronger 2nd XI’s in recent memory and, led well by Jake Denny (upper sixth), they recorded some excellent performances to live up to this reputation. Reed’s, RGS Guildford, St John’s, Epsom, Hampton and Trinity were all defeated on Saturdays which highlighted the consistency in performance but also the depth of talent within the playing pool.Tommaso Wood (upper fifth) was the leading run scorer in the early part of the season which warranted his call up to the 1st XI. Ethan Patel and Amaan Naseem (both upper fifth) were consistent performers with the ball and there were some good all-round performances from Benedict Holder (lower sixth). However, the strength in this side was that when a couple of players missed out on any given day, others stepped up and got the job done which is the sign of a good side!
The 3rd and 4th XI had their usual fixtures at either end of the season, and it was again brilliant to see large numbers of pupils representing the school. A number of these played for the 2nd XI too at some point during the season. Some excellent games against Hampton were the highlights and it was particularly pleasing to see some upper sixth returning to cricket for the first time in several years. Mr T Gwynne
The U15A cricket team had an excellent term, with several exciting games, some outstanding team performances, and many highlights. The group grew as the season progressed with some excellent performances in regular Saturday fixtures as well as a great cup run. They started the term with a tough result against RGS Guildford but then won a thriller against St George’s with Louis Wood hitting the last ball of the game for 6. This was then followed by an outstanding performance against Dulwich with the bowlers hitting their lines and lengths and taking wickets at key moments.
It was great to see this group flourish throughout the term, and even more pleasing to see different pupils contribute with both bat and ball, and there was movement between the teams. The U15A cup run would easily be a highlight this term and especially their victories against Whitgift and Trinity. The Whitgift result really summed up the term, with their ability to never give up and to fight until the game was over.
Max Rawlinson was superb with the bat in this game and then George Lovett-Turner led the way with the ball.
These pupils continued to improve in the second half of term with great results against Tiffin and Trinity, and an exciting draw with Hampton. These were great preparation for the eagerly awaited cup final against Epsom College at the end of term. Unfortunately for King’s, Epsom were too strong on the day and they ended up runners up in the county, which is still a fantastic achievement.
The sign up for U15 cricket was great this term which meant we were able to get both a B and C team on the weekends. The Bs put in some great performances, most notably against RGS Guildford and Trinity, with several players making the step up to the A team. The Cs had a tough term with regards to results but turned up every weekend and worked hard at after school training sessions to improve. Again, several pupils then made the step up to the B team. A big thanks must go to both Mr Griffin and Mr Brooker for looking after and coaching these two teams.
Mr B Tibble
The season began with all four teams playing at home to Reed’s. It was an excellent start for the U14 age group, winning three out of the four games. The standout performers were the A team, who took the game all the way to the final ball with Reed’s needing 4 to win. Odran Williams held his nerve and took a wicket with the final delivery to win the game. The next Saturday fixture was against RGS Guildford. Unfortunately, we had a lot of rain in the build-up to the weekend and only the A team game stayed on. The A team bowled RGS out for 56 and then knocked off the runs with Joseph Galligan being the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-1-4-1.
Midweek matches took place against Ibstock for the B, C, and D teams with some excellent performance including the U14C team bowling Ibstock out for 74. The next weekend block was against Dulwich College. The A team finished with an exciting game ending in a draw and the B and C teams won convincingly, with Sebastian Edwards scoring 50+ to help his team to victory. Sebastian continued this form against St John’s Leatherhead where both the B and C teams had convincing wins. The A team just came up short by 8 runs.
After the half term break, the U14s travelled to Epsom and the A and B teams dug deep to get two great wins, with the C team struggling to chase down 191 in a very high scoring match. Hampton were our next opponents and the results flipped with the A and B teams losing narrowly and the C team winning in a game that was a fans’ favourite.
Great wins for the C and D teams against Emanuel A and B and then the
A and B teams against Tiffin, topped of the penultimate week of fixtures. The U14ABC then faced Trinity in the final block of the term. Unfortunately, all three teams came out second best, but these were some of the best team performances this term and demonstrated the togetherness the players have developed.
Throughout the term the U14A team also took part in the Anderson Cup. They faced Thomas’s Battersea in the second round after getting a bye through round one. Bowling them out for 86 with Harsha Murthy taking 5 for 5. The team then knocked off the runs with Aryan Vedhara scoring 57*. In round 3, the team restricted Downsend to 104 off 20 overs, they then knocked this off in 14.2 overs. The semi-final then came against rivals Whitgift. I am sure the team will say this is their greatest victory of the term, chasing down 156 with Tom Jackson making an impressive 68 to help us to victory. The final was against St John’s Leatherhead who the A team had narrowly lost to earlier in the term. Unfortunately, the batting didn’t fire on this day and St John’s knocked off the 130 set with 5.4 overs to go. Despite the loss it was a tremendous effort by this team to get to the final and they can be very excited for next year’s cup competitions.
Over the course of the term over 50 players represented the U14 age group. They all developed not only in performance but also as people. One of the aims of the coaching staff was to bring this group of players together to become four cohesive teams. The fluidity between squads allowed this to happen but also the players bought in a positive mentality that allowed mistakes to occur and talent to flourish. This group of players have a very bright future ahead of them and I hope they all continue to play cricket.
Mr J Barrington
This was a thoroughly enjoyable season but perhaps one where the efforts of the players were not rewarded with the results you might have hoped. The A team were unlucky to be drawn against an exceptional Epsom side in the first round of the cup and a much-needed confidence building, form finding, cup run amongst some strong Saturday and midweek opponents was unfortunately not to be. However, the side did have a good number of excellent performances when recording a couple of excellent victories, but also missed out in a few other nail-biting losses.
Ben Reffit’s outstanding 82 against Tiffin was perhaps the individual champagne moment of the season. He scored some vital runs and will surely be a player to watch for the future. George Butterworth also produced some promising performances with the bat without recapturing the form he had at under 12. His captaincy and leadership was certainly worthy of a note. Ayan Pateland and Joe Stacey, our two spin twins, demonstrated fine control and good cricketing understanding as they picked up crucial wickets in the middle overs. Arjun Tahiliani bowled with great pace with the new ball, Sammy Hull offered with bat and ball and was a key partnership builder. Barney Rawlinson found real form in the second half of the season and Leo Wood flourished in his role at the top of the order. James O’Donnell was brave behind the stumps and demonstrated his commitment to the team as he travelled to support his peers, even when injured. All in all, there is a great deal of talent here. The opposition schools are undoubtedly strong at this age group but there is plenty to be excited about.
Something else to be excited about is the strength in depth and competition for places. Charlie “mid week contracted player” Zha is a known quantity and he added a great deal when available – Wilson’s A and B teams might not agree! Lucas De Mol ended the season with some excellent contributions for the A team and the most improved award. However, it was his sublime 90 off 61 against Dulwich and superb 4-12 v RGS that will sit in the memories of many. Dougie Adams also took an excellent 4-20 against Reed’s and Harry Walker finished his King’s cricketing career with a wonderful 4-11 v Dulwich. Karthik Prasanna was the most explosive power hitter in the B squad and his 67* showed his potential for years to come. Indra Luthia (50) and Senan Loth (45) also contributed key scores. Finally, Oliver Lovett-Turner’s ability to clear the ropes and his raw, uncomplicated but natural ability behind the stumps makes him an exciting player to watch. Mr Yule’s team perhaps won’t be remembered for being the most consistent but when they fired, they were a joy (and loud!) to watch.
The C team had some huge contests in their season. Stanley Cottrell 50* off 39 Vs Reigate, Keeran Jithendra 2-0-4-2 Vs Reed’s and Arthur Irvine 2-16-2 Vs Reed’s perhaps the three most memorable individual performances of the season. However, it was the team’s incredible collective effort to restrict Tiffin to only 16 runs off 8 overs to win the game by 3 runs that stands out. The Under 13D were likened to supporting the England middle order of the 90s. A couple of fantastic convincing victories were matched by a couple of losses where we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. A number of players made the step up into the C team and performed admirably.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable season with a great bunch of players. They trained hard, put their bodies on the line in the field and showed flashes of brilliance with bat and bowl. There is no doubt there is a huge amount of potential in this group and it’s exciting to see how they get on the middle school. A huge thanks to the loyal and vocal parent supporters who braved baking heat and freezing cold and rain at different stages this season.
Mr J Gibson
The U12A team had a hugely successful and enjoyable summer. The season kicked off with a hard-fought victory over a strong RGS Guildford side. Having reduced RGS to 96 runs from their first innings, the team managed to get over the line with three overs to spare. A very mature 34 not out from Oli Watt was the difference between the two sides. Comfortable victories against St John’s, where Theo Knowles scored 40, and Dulwich, where Natan Sarkar managed a half century, followed. A firm wake up call was then delivered by a formidable Wilson’s side who bowled us out for 61 and when the group then went on to put in a fantastic performance to chase down 104 at Reed’s, it appeared that the lessons of the previous week had been learned. Sam
U12B
The B team got off to a great start in what turned out to be a fantastic season with a convincing victory over RGS Guildford. We were all very enthusiastic, realising how much potential we had as a team. It really created an environment for success - everyone wanted to play their part. Only two teams got the better of us out of the 10 we played. The most memorable performances included 50s from Kartik Dabke and Seb Arney, and a six-fer for Harry O’Hare, our spinner. Our hardest match had to be against Epsom College, where we came back from 38-5 to chase down 106, anchored by Laurie Gawley. Overall, it was a truly memorable season and a fantastic team to be a part of.
Zac Arney (year 7)
Bowles and Ismail Saleem-Sheikh provided the stable partnership needed on that particular evening. With the end of the season on the horizon, the boys bounced back from a humbling experience away at Epsom College with a fantastic chase to beat Tiffin before losing to an excellent Trinity side.
This is a really exciting and well-balanced cricket team that has an excellent future ahead. Across the region, Epsom and Trinity have set the pace and I for one will be looking out for how the team get on against them next season. A big thank you from me to Sam Bowles for captaining the team so well and a huge thank you to all the boys for their commitment and endeavour throughout the summer.
Mr T Rogers
Even though the focus for the U12C and D teams was firmly on skill development and game understanding, it should be noted that both teams achieved considerable success in fixtures. A special mention should go to the U12C team who went through the season undefeated – much to the delight of the ever-modest Mr Wheately. Scraping over the line to beat Reed’s by a wicket (87-9) was the pick of their matches. Under the tutelage of Mr Josypenko and rebranded ‘EJ’s army’ after a disappointing summer in 2022 the U12Ds made huge progress throughout the term. Coming back from 22-4 to chase a winning total of 90 set by Tiffin was the standout performance.
Mr T Rogers
The seniors had an excellent year on the hockey pitch, with some fantastic performances and some great results. In the autumn term, the 1st VI indoor team qualified for the London Finals with wins over Kingston Grammar School and Trinity School. They then travelled over to Whitgift to compete against the best schools in London and ended up finishing third which was a fantastic achievement. Being able to compete with the likes of Whitgift, KGS, Trinity and Alleyn’s shows how much time and effort these pupils put in over the term. The 1st XI, led by Alex Adair (upper sixth), started the term well with wins against Dulwich College and Reigate Grammar, but
unfortunately Alleyn’s were too strong for them in the National Cup. The next couple of games were lost to the weather, so when they next stepped onto the hockey pitch against Lingfield they were eager to put in a good performance. A 4-1 win in the first round of the independent School Cup, with a hattrick from Sam Barnett (upper sixth), meant that they progressed to face Whitgift in the next round. It was a great test to travel over to Whitgift for a fixture however, even though Kings were excellent, Whitgift were too strong.
Block fixtures against Ardingly, RGS Guildford and Churchers, were tough for the 1st XI, however a 4-4 draw against RGS was the highlight. On a Friday night, under the lights, King’s scored a lastminute goal to draw against a strong side in front of a large crowd down at Kingsway.
The 2s and 3s were superbly coached by Mr Wood, Mr Bennett, and Mr Simpson, and it was great to see them progress over the year. Every pupil that chose hockey represented the school and there was movement between all three teams. The standout result for the 2nd XI was a win against Reigate Grammar School, who were excellent opposition, and it just showed how hard the pupils had been working. The 3rd XI had a difficult term with regards to results, but the progress they made was excellent and they enjoyed their hockey.
I would like to say a big thank you to the coaches, pupils, and parents for supporting the King’s hockey program this term. I look forward to following the progress of our leavers as they play hockey at university.
Mr B Tibble
The U13s were enthusiastic and hardworking with their approach to training throughout the season and this saw vast improvements over the term. Regularly getting four teams out was terrific and they played with a lot of energy and desire to find a way to get results. The block versus Reigate was played in some of the worst conditions I have seen, which luckily did not fluster the group who got readily involved in four very competitive games. The U13 Bs won 3-2, with a last-minute goal from Alec Gilligan, which showed the strength in depth within the year group. A number of the B team players transitioned to the A team and there was plenty of movement from C to D and higher. Another memorable performance was the A team vs St George’s: within the blink of an eye we found ourselves 2-0 up but with opposition came back into it and we held on for a 4-2 victory with some excellent saves from Lucas Yu. The C team produced some excellent performances with Churcher’s and Kingston Grammar standing
out. Winston Qiu was imperious in goal at times which helped the side considerably. The U13D team were the best standard Mr McCluskey has seen for a number of years, with terrific skill level and effort. They showed resilience and hard work throughout the term and their performance against RGS Guildford
The spring term saw the start of the U12 hockey season and what a season it had in store this year. I was particularly excited about the potential these boys had to offer and they certainly delivered. The progress made this year
was off the charts going from boys having never played hockey before to participating in over 15 fixtures across the term. This was also the first year I have seen where we had a waiting list for goalkeepers as so many of them wanted to give it a go. We found a fantastic four in Rish Grover, Ben West, Vincent Janjic and Martin O’Flanagan. The U12 programme saw fixtures
was evidence of their progress. Well done to all those involved with the U13 Hockey, a big thank you to Mr Wheatly, Mr Griffin, Mr McCluskey and Mr Tibble for their coaching and thank you to the boys for their efforts.
Mr E Bowden
against teams like Caterham, Reigate, Kingston and Cranmore, each with a more exciting and thrilling scoreline than the last. Particular mention should go to the block against Dulwich with two huge wins for the As and Bs (2-0 and 5-2 respectively) and some tight games for the C and D teams. Our last week saw a really busy end to the season with matches on Tuesday, Friday AND Saturday but the boys outdid themselves and we came away with multiple wins across all teams. Special mention to the U12Cs for beating St Dunstan’s 5 – 0 on Friday.
Miss A Livesey
The girls’ 1st XI hockey team have had a brilliant 2022/2023 season. We debuted our new shirts in a competitive cup match against Wimbledon High in which we narrowly lost on penalty flicks. We spent the first few weeks integrating as a team and building on our play. Despite suffering some narrow losses and close draws against teams which have been playing together far longer than we had, we knew we had potential to be a strong team.
At the St George’s 6s tournament, we displayed strong performances against some top hockey schools. Then, we secured our first strong 7-1 win against City of London Freemen’s which was followed by another 9-0 win in the plate run where Martha and Izzy both scored a hattrick. In the next couple of weeks, we continued our winning momentum with victories over Gordon’s and Streatham and Clapham where we played excellent team performances. Mya was a strong leader from the goal with Manu and Sofia making some crucial goal-line saves.
Throughout the term, we built on key skills
like moving the ball around the pitch so we could utilise our strong pace down the righthand side, as well as being more clinical around the goal. These were fantastically translated into the game where either Bella or Angie sprinted through players and assisted our forwards in
the D, leading to our goal of the season with a volley from Anna.
Our season was filled with magnificent highs along with some lows however the bounds we made as a team made this such a memorable season. I am sure that for those of us leaving the school, our passion and excitement for the sport will continue.
Eloise Broyden, 1st XI Captain (upper sixth)
The girl’s hockey 2nd XI have an abundance of talent, and despite encountering challenges, they have exhibited significant growth and potential for future success. The team demonstrated remarkable determination and resilience, continually striving to improve their skills and foster a positive team environment. Over the season they battled hard to win two fixtures and only narrowly missing out on the remaining.
Miss A Rawlings and Miss A Livesey
It has been an amazing experience for us to captain the hockey 2nd XI team this year and we’ve been so lucky to have such a committed team. On Saturdays we played our weekly matches which ended with many wins and some awfully close losses. Everyone, throughout the season improved copious amounts especially Olivia who became one of the top goal scorers in the team, and Bella who was able to
dribble past numerous defenders. Despite not always having a goalkeeper, many of our team members voluntarily took this in their stride and performed remarkably well. Overall, our season was very successful, especially towards the end as our team began to work as a unit knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses..
Rebecca Sweeney and Lara McColm - Co-captains (upper sixth) 2 nd TEAM
The girls’ netball team had a highly successful season, with 55 talented girls participating across five teams. Their dedication and passion for the sport was evident as they competed against numerous schools, showcasing their skills and teamwork. This not only displayed the depth of talent within the squad but also highlighted the inclusive and supportive environment cultivated by the coaching staff. This abundance of fixtures provided invaluable opportunities for growth and development, both individually and as a team. The commitment and hard work demonstrated by these exceptional athletes resulted in a season filled with triumphs and memorable experiences. The girls’ netball team’s achievements highlight their unwavering determination and serve as a testament to their talent and camaraderie.
Miss A Rawlings
The girls’ netball 1st team embarked on a remarkable season filled with growth and memorable moments. Although it started with a narrow 1-goal loss against Gordon’s School in the cup, the team quickly found their stride. Led by the exceptional leadership of Anna Farmer and Rebecca Sweeney, they steadily improved and showcased their talent in both county and national tournaments. As the autumn term drew to a close, the team began their campaign in the spring term, displaying some spectacular performances and developing further as a squad. The squad had a variety of results but some of the memorable ones include 2nd Place at the Lord Wandsworth Tournament, wins against City of London Freemen’s and St George’s Weybridge. Anna Farmer and Rebecca SweeneyCo-captains (upper sixth)
It’s been a great pleasure to captain the 1st netball team together this year and we’ve been lucky to have had such a committed and fun team to
make it a memorable season. It’s been a busy term with weekly Saturday matches and several tournaments. Throughout the season we’ve seen huge improvements in all the players, but most notably Isabelle Skilton (who hardly missed a shot all term), and Flo Murphy who made some incredible interceptions and effortlessly switched between attack and defence throughout the court. We finished the season with a win in the match against the boys rugby team, in which we played tactically, utilising our strengths. We also
The 2nd team netball season was a remarkable journey filled with highs, lows, and immense growth. The outstanding shooting skills of Allegra and Lucy proved to be a crucial asset for the team. However, amidst their shining performances, our captain, Thea, emerged as a true unsung hero. Whenever the team needed her, Thea stepped up with unwavering confidence, displaying great skill and composure.
enjoyed
What truly set this team apart was their unwavering determination and resilience. Even in the face of adversity and when trailing in matches, they never backed down. The players continued to exude high levels of confidence, motivation, and a fighting spirit, pushing themselves to come back stronger in every quarter. It was this unwavering belief in their abilities that propelled them forward.
The team dynamics played a pivotal role in their success. Each member of the team supported and encouraged one another, fostering a positive and cohesive environment. They did not just rely on individual brilliance; instead, they worked collaboratively to help each other improve and reach their full potential. As the season progressed, their performance soared, and the team chemistry flourished. They became a united force, gelling together both on and off the court. Ultimately, the 2nd team netball season was a testament to the power of teamwork, determination, and perseverance. Their journey serves as an inspiration and a reminder that success is not solely measured by wins and losses, but by the growth, unity, and unwavering spirit displayed throughout the season.
Miss L Cooke
Despite a challenging start with a 60-6 loss in the first game, the 3rd XI netballers quickly transformed their season into a tale of determination and growth. Overcoming obstacles, they rallied together and embraced a strong sense of camaraderie. Their increased effort on court and refusal to surrender loose balls showcased their growing competitive spirit. Encouragingly, the team’s resilience paid off, as they delivered a significantly closer match in their next game. Tabitha Nott captained the team with great enthusiasm and poise - supported admirably by Charlotte Jackson and Sasha Mueller in the centre court - and we lost only narrowly. Finally, when up against City of London Freemen’s the following week, the girls triumphed 26-4. This first win fuelled their fire, and when the girls turned up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the following Saturday to journey to Woldingham, morale was high. The game finished as a 21-16 win, with Ruby Drake-Doyle scoring so consistently well that she was singled-out by the opposition. All the shooting players deserve a special mention this season, with Tamara never missing a shot and Cat and Celeste performing similarly well. Another win followed the week after and in the next week after that, culminating in a tremendous clash
The mighty fourths fought hard this season against some tough opposition. With almost a full team of Izzys they balanced enthusiasm and determination in every match. Defence was a real strong point
against St. Benedict’s. Seeing the girls go from strength-to-strength was the highlight of the year for me, and I can only hope that these fantastic
players continue to find great joy in the sport in years to come
Ms H Jay
with the mighty Izzy Staples and Elaine in Goal Defence and Goal Keeper. Time after time, the opposition recognised Izzy Staples’s ability to catch every rebound and keep the shooters on their toes. Grace showed her immense versatility on the court: able to play anywhere she was needed and always with a smile. The shooting trio of Matilde, Ruby and Jess were a huge help in achieving our
two wins, 22-13 against Pangbourne being the greatest triumph of the season. Surviving stolen match teas, and treks through the grounds of Woldingham and St George’s, the 4th team were heroic in their approach to netball this term, even if the win did not always go our way.
Miss T Barwick-Ward and Miss R Alexander
The 5th team had an excellent season. Outstanding players included Odessa and Martine, and shout out to Zara, Defne and Hannah for great sportswoman-ship. We had a lead on goals in many quarters, and were able to finesse our passing and communication skills as the term progressed. The best part of the season was the 5th team’s brilliant teamwork and supportive attitude. Every match was great fun and the girls were able to navigate their way - either finishing with highscoring matches or maintaining high morale against tough opponents. Well done, 5s, we are already looking forward to next year!
Miss F Smart and Mrs E Taylor
This year has been a year of huge progress for the Boat Club with significant improvements through the season leading to some strong results at the sharpest end of schoolboy rowing.
Starting the season, most people saw this as a development year for King’s College School Boat Club (KCSBC) with many of the heavy hitters from previous years having left for university. However, through the programme, the whole squad made big steps to end the year as one of the fastest King’s crews yet.
The season started with a solid fourth place finish at Fours Head and wins at many smaller events like the Teddington, Walton, and Hampton heads for different classes of boat, as well as a promising 13th place finish at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, MA. The winter was spent with hours on the rowing machines building
up our fitness ready for racing in January.
Come spring, both the 1st eight and 2nd eight had slightly disappointing seventh place finishes at the Schools Head of the River, which only added to our appetite which we carried into our training camp at Lac du Causse, France, where the 1st eight went on to set the second fastest 2km time ever for a King’s boat.
Next up, regatta season. We started with Wallingford Regatta where we came second in the 4-boat and then later raced the eight, placing
third. A few races later, it was time to prep for the National Schools Regatta, one of the most important races of the year. National Schools yielded more successful results with both the 1st and 2nd eights placing fifth and beating some crews that were being held as favourites to win. To finish off the season, we raced in the prestigious Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta where we were knocked out in the quarter finals.
The J16 rowers started off the year very strong with wins at the Teddington Head, before posting good performances at the Pairs’ and Fours’ Head. Three J16s also went to the USA for the Head of the Charles Regatta, the largest head race in the world, and were able to hold their own among older, more experienced athletes.
After a hard Christmas training, we hit the ground running with fourth at the Quintin Head, and cemented our place at the grueling Schools’ Head race with fifth, hot on the heels of those in front of us. Next up, was a training camp for the squad in France, a first for everyone in the J16s, which resulted in great boat speed and set us up well for the following races, coming sixth at Wallingford and we ended up in the A-final at National Schools’ Regatta. The squad then split up, aiming for two different campaigns; trying to qualify for the Henley Royal Regatta and to represent GB at the GB-France match. With some very tough racing, four of the J16s qualified to represent GB in the coxless four, where they narrowly lost by a length. This season and its success wouldn’t have been possible without Dr Whitelaw, who made a massive difference not only to how we row, but also to how we conduct ourselves.
Ben Hughes (upper fifth)
This year, the J15 rowing group had an excellent run. As a result of high numbers, we were able to produce both a committed first and second eight, as well as a coxed four, all of whom turned up to sessions every week without fail, regardless of rain or wind. As a result of this outstanding commitment to the sport, both eights managed to produce some incredible results throughout the year; from winning events such as the Hampton Head of the River, and the Poplar Regatta, and coming second and third at the Quintin Head and School’s Head of the River respectively.The coxed four, despite having been formed not too long before the event, also managed to put up a solid effort at the National School’s Regatta.
Ben Lane (lower fifth)
It has been a fantastic and memorable year for the J14 squad. We started the year by learning the basics of a sculling stroke and applying it to our first races at the Hampton Head and Molesey Head. We then started learning the other elements of the sport, such as ergos and fitness, but also the hard work and discipline required. Our focus of the first term was our first National event, the Junior Sculling Head in Dorney Lake, where we had an impressive two Octos and two Quads competing.
After the Easter Break, our first Regatta season began, and as we learnt to row shorter sprints and standing starts, our first regatta arrived, the Chiswick Regatta. We entered three Octos and a Quad, with the 1st octo making the final and narrowly missing out on first place, finishing an impressive second.The 1st quad had fantastic race, with Mr Williams’ scream of ”YEAH KINGS!“ inspiring us to finish first by a huge five lengths and winning our first ever rowing Tankards. We held this great form onto the Poplar Regatta. The 1st quad had an extremely close race, ahead of the pack, but remaining side by side with Mossbourne for the entire 2km, where they narrowly beat us by a tiny 0.4 seconds, and Mr Williams telling us it was the ”closest J14 quad race he’s seen”. Despite being slightly disappointed, second place was still and incredible result. The 2nd octo also had a fantastic day, finishing an impressive third place.
The only race remaining was the biggest of the year, the National Schools Regatta, where we entered three octos and two quads. After some difficult conditions during the Time Trial, both the 1st octo and 1st quad made finals, where the 1st octo came third and 1st quad fifth. None of this year would have been made possible without the hard work and effort put in by our coaches Miss Lennox, Mr Williams, Dr Whitelaw, Mr Duggan, Mr Caouki, Miss James, and Mr Oldroyd: thank you for a fantastic J14 year! Alejandro Flores (fourth form)
Outside of school, King’s rowers had successes on the international stage with wins for GB in the Coupe de la Jeunesse for Fleur Blase (upper sixth), for England in the Home International Regatta for Fraser Burdett (lower sixth) and Finlay Murray (lower sixth) and most notably, a win at U19 World Championships for Sam Scowen (upper sixth) who stroked the men’s eight to a gold medal.
Finlay Murray (lower sixth)
“It was great to have the opportunity to race for GB again, and I loved being able to meet so many new people, who I am sure I will see at many different rowing events.” Fleur Blase (upper sixth)
The Home International regatta is a four-way regatta between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales across various boat classes in both Senior and U19 events. This year it took place in Lough Rinn in Ireland where we represented the England U19 men’s sweep team in the coxed four, eight and eight’s sprint race, competing in crews with other athletes from various schools across England. We won all our events, picking up three gold medals as well as the England team winning the overall points trophy. It was a very memorable and enjoyable experience and a nice way to wrap up the season.
Fraser Burdett (lower sixth)
“The 2023 World Rowing Junior Championships was a fantastic event to compete in, and it was raced on the venue for the 2024 Olympics in Paris next summer. I was selected for the men’s eight, where we raced six other countries coming from as far as the USA and New Zealand. Coached by Patrick Duggan (also of KCS Wimbledon), we came away with a gold medal, and the second official British win in the men’s eight in 38 years. It was a fantastic moment to end a tough month of trialling and training with the team, and a thoroughly enjoyable four years of rowing at King’s.”
Sam Scowen (upper sixth)
For the first time since 2008, the school has had four upper fifth rowers selected to represent Great Britain in a GB vs France match.
The crew of Massi Tondo, Alistair Heathcote, Felix Sitter, and Ben Hughes (all upper fifth) competed at the trials where they faced opposition from Eton, Westminster and Latymer. They were not only successful, they managed to beat their closest opposition by a margin 13 seconds. They - along with their coach Aksel Caouki - were formally selected to represent GB.
The international event took place in Nottingham from the 11th to the 14th July where the best of the UK’s school and club crews took on the best that France had to offer.
Mr P Duggan
Here is a report from one of the crew:
On the 25th June, Massi, Ally, Felix and I set out to qualify to represent GB at a match against the French team with the help of our coach, Mr Caouki. Following a really strong race, we found out that not only had we qualified to represent GB and earn our first GB vest, but we had beaten the rest of the field by 13 seconds, managing to overturn crews that had beaten us earlier in the season. We got straight back to training the next day and have been ever since, trying to gain as much speed as we can in the two short weeks before the match on the 12th July.
Ben Hughes (upper fifth)
Pre-season for the 1st XV was rather intense as we travelled down to Cardiff for a four-day tour, that involved a heavy schedule of training and hill sprints, much to the front row’s dismay. A triangular against Tonbridge and Brighton College finished off the pre-season and the boys were raring to get into the regular season.
Missed opportunities and a sense of what could have been overshadowed some great performances in a few of the games. Reed’s, RGS Guildford and St John’s were all games that we lost by five points or less and honestly, we really should have won all three. Against Reed’s we were 21 points up at half time, fell asleep in the second half and ended up losing 24-21. While against Reed’s we started well and dominated the first exchanges, the RGS game was a different story and it took us a while to get into the game which ended with a 19-14 loss and we were left to rue missed opportunities to dot the ball down.
Out of these tight losses, St John’s was by far the most painful. Playing with the wind and the slope in the first half, we controlled the game with much of the play happening in their 22. We knew we needed to capitalise on the favourable conditions that the first half presented us and at 10-3 up, a score before half time would have been ideal. However, a score from the opposition left the game level at halftime and we knew the second half would be an uphill battle. After St John’s added a couple more tries and extended the gap to 14 points, it was looking like an impossible task. However, we clawed two tries back and Xavier (upper sixth) knocked over the extras to make it level. Sadly, after this resurgence and with the boys buzzing to end the season on a high, heartbreak was to follow as we conceded a last-minute penalty to lose 30-27.
Despite this, we had a handful of brilliant wins both on the road and at home. The first win was under the lights at Old Boys against The Oratory.
It was scrappy but we got the job done. A fairly comfortable win against Wimbledon College, that doubled up as a first round cup game, was a boost to the boys and is always a good feeling getting one over the local rivals. However, losses to Cranleigh and Hampton finished off the first half of term, with the break providing some useful and much needed rest for the players. We targeted the second half of term as an opportunity to try and get a few more results and that we did with wins against Hurst, Emanuel and Tiffin. Before that however, we had to face Trinity in the first game back after the break. Although we lost, the boys put in a very commendable performance and the pack scored undoubtedly the try of the season: a trick play maul from a lineout that powered through the opposition defence.
Out of those performances in the second half of term, the win against Hurst at home was by far the best. An afternoon kick-off on a crisp November Saturday suited the boys, especially the lower sixth, as we produced some champagne rugby and a handful of serious hits. However, we were left scratching our heads as Hurst came back into the game at the end of the first half, leaving the half time score at 21-21.The second half performance was utterly dominant, with our superstar centre Hugo Plat (upper sixth) dotting down 3 times and the visitors scoring a consolation in the final play to make the score 43-26.
I would like to thank Mr Bowden, Mr Cheers and all the boys for making it such an enjoyable final season. This was the 11th season I have played with some of you, and I am very honoured to have worn the shirt for such a long time. Memories like winning the nationals back-to-back in junior school, the Dubai rugby trip and last year’s cup run, will never be forgotten.
Thank you to the coaches of all the teams who have worked tirelessly throughout the season - and I speak for all the boys here when I say that we are very grateful for what you have done for us.
And to end, in the words of RPM, “I Love King’s”
Seth Eley (upper sixth, captain of 1st XV)
It was certainly a season of ups and downs for the 2nd XV this year. The season began with a tough away day at Reed’s, but we more than made amends with a memorable victory against London Oratory. It was a hugely physical game of attrition that could have gone either way but King’s character and “never say die” attitude shone through with King’s going over for a late score in the corner to seal the win. That victory, under the lights at Kingsway, was undeniably the highlight of our season. Another win followed in the local derby against Wimbledon College but unfortunately it was the only other win in the first half term. As winter neared and pitches became wetter and muddier, we fell short against Trinity and Hurst, but in those games the result did not tell the full story - we had put in two heroic performances against two of the toughest names in the block of school fixtures. Our third win of the season came against Tiffin, and we targeted wins in our last two games to finish the season and send the upper sixth off on a high. Unfortunately, the lowest moment of the season was to follow with defeat against Emanuel. One thing that we took away from that game was to focus on controlling what we can control, rather than worrying about the opposition or the referee. And so, we arrived at
the last Saturday of a whirlwind season. It was St John’s, and we were desperate to achieve one last victory. The desire and commitment were unquestioned and the performance was one of the best from the season, but unfortunately injuries undermined our effort and we fell to defeat. Regardless of the results, the team was defined by an unbelievable group of boys who ensured that, no matter the result, every second of the season was enjoyable.
Sam Herbert (lower sixth)
Looking back over the 2022 rugby season for the U16 As, I recall close encounters and fond memories. Two competitive preseason matches against Brighton and Tonbridge set us up for a season of ups and downs.
Despite challenging opposition and a long list of injuries, the team showed great heart and produced some incredible moments. After a narrow loss to Reed’s in our first game, the boys bounced back to deliver a convincing victory over London Oratory School the following week. Highlight performances came from our prop-turnedbackrower, Joven Sekhon (upper fifth), as well as our player of the season, Gal Shilo (upper fifth). After that, a string of tough losses was difficult to take, but we persevered and maintained our high standards, identifying our defensive alignment and attacking set piece as key areas to address moving forwards.
This ultimately resulted in a huge win against Tiffin School, with a margin of 50 points, as a result of some brilliant team tries. Some close games followed and we finished the 15s season with an unfortunate defeat to St John’s. Looking at rugby sevens, we played in the Surrey Sevens tournament, reaching the semi-finals of the Shield competition, celebrating some particularly big wins against Halliford School and Carshalton College. The team remains confident and hopeful of an even more successful season next year.
Harry Rushton (upperfifth)
Having come off the back of a very strong unbeaten season the year before, everyone in the team was excited for our first test of the season, Reed’s. Having had a couple of days of pre-season training we felt ready and capable to demonstrate our skills against a Reed’s side we had beaten before, and this confidence was shown in the game. A strong physical performance left us 19-0 up after the first half, and despite good heart and courage shown from the Reed’s team this proved too much of an advantage, and we were able to power through the second half to finish 47-0 up, a brilliant start to the season and an excellent confidence booster for us. Our second game of the season was London Oratory away, so we knew we were in for a tough, physical game. It was this match where we conceded our first point of the season with the opening strategy not going to plan, and we were left 7-0 down after mere minutes of play. However, we were not to let this try set us back and we responded swiftly with a try of our own, and soon the game fell into our hands, ending 66-14. Next up was RGS Guildford and having not played for nine days, the whole team
incredibly good platform to work from in the second. In the second half this time it proved to be our defence that was the difference between the two sides, highlighted especially by a 10-minute period at the end of the game, where despite a constant onslaught from Cranleigh, we were able to hold out. We were especially pleased about this as it had been a big focus for us in training in the prior weeks, and for it to have paid off was very rewarding. That, coupled with two more tries, allowed us to secure a remarkable 26-0 win which most of us will remember for a very long time to come.
After the half term break, we were met with another Goliath opponent in Trinity School. On a rainy day at their playing fields, the whole team showed incredible heart in the face of a challenging opposition. Everyone was pleased with our line out, in particular this game as it had been a major point of improvement for us throughout the term, and it was exciting to see our work pay off, However we knew we needed to be quicker to identify space on the rewind back to the blindside, as this was something we struggled with in the match. The game ended in a 33-0 win to us, another amazing performance against a very good side which left us feeling incredible in the run up to the game against Hurstpierpoint College. This was another stand out performance. Our
was raring to go. We knew RGS would be a strong side, but with our new England pattern at the ready to try out and the attack flowing, there was going to be nothing stopping us form winning the game. It ended 66-0 to us but there was a slight feeling of regret as we felt we could certainly have been more clinical in their 22.
This gave us something to work on during the week leading up to the highly anticipated Ridgway Derby against Wimbledon College. All of us were up for it and this was seen right from the start as we scored try after try after try. Everyone was pleased with how our intensity seemed to last throughout the 60 minutes of the game and it showed in the score line with the game finishing 68-5 to King’s. This was an incredible performance from the team and felt especially rewarding to put on such a clinical display on our local rivals, though we knew we had to continue to work on our exits from the 22, as this was weak in the game. This performance was just what we needed going into our biggest game of the season so far against Cranleigh away. With Cranleigh being such a prestigious rugby school, this was going to be a real test and after a bus journey nightmare left us with just a 10-minute warm up, we knew our work was going to be cut out. Cranleigh proved to be an incredibly strong defensive outfit, but despite this we were able to get over the line twice in the first half, giving us an
constant training on defence and on the skills of double-tackling and chopping , finally paid off, allowing us to keep Hurstpierpoint out for the whole game. It ended 45-0 because of some clinical attack and a few amazing intercepts; another incredible away win and another weekend of no points conceded. Coming out of this game, we only had one more game of the seasonal fixture to go, with our final opponents being Tiffin. The week leading up to Tiffin was focused mostly on breakdown clear out, as that was a recurring weakness, but our work and effort paid off and our game against Tiffin was a convincing 40-0 win.
This unbeaten season was a real step forward for our age group and every member of the team is incredibly proud of what we achieved along with our coaches. We are all excited for the challenges of next season and the exciting prospect of having to face some new, more challenging opposition. I can speak for everyone when I say that the whole team is immensely proud of what we have accomplished this year and the incredible results we have obtained along the way. Beating the likes of Cranleigh and Trinity away was probably the standout achievement of the year. Everyone is itching for the next rugby season to start and curious to see what we can achieve and how far we can push ourselves.
Leo Dickinson (lower fifth)
The U15B rugby season started well with a promising win against a strong Reed’s side. The forwards put up a good defence, with the King’s side not conceding the whole match, ending with a score of 24-0. We went into the next match with confidence, which was perhaps misplaced, leading to a 44-0 loss to a London Oratory side. Although the team was disappointed, we followed up with two close wins in succession against RGS and Wimbledon College. The forwards put in a relentless attack, utilising nail and taxi formations to break down the opposition. Unfortunately, a good Cranleigh side capitalised on our mistakes the week after, leading to a tough loss for the team. The next week, Trinity and King’s met with the same determination, with neither side accepting a loss. An eventual draw after a well fought battle from both teams was the result. Although let down by an agonising loss to Hurstpierpoint College, we responded well to Tiffin and Emanuel, using plays developed in training to ship the ball wide to our wingers through the creation of space. Overall, I would consider the season a success, with the team coming into its stride at the end. Plays were learnt and refined, with the forward unit working hard to improve its lineout formation. I look forward to the next season with anticipation; impatient to keep up the improvement we have worked hard for this year.
Kaviraj Karir (lower fifth)
One of my favourite matches was against Wimbledon College in which we all worked very well together as a team in order to defeat our rivals. A particular highlight in that match was towards the end where the A team’s match had finished and they were there to cheer us on, helping us play particularly well. In addition, our draw against Trinity, with a lastminute winner from Matteo d’Allance de Melo (lower fifth), subbed on from the Cs due to a managerial masterclass from Mr Brooker, was a particularly quality moment of the season for us.
Within training, we worked very hard to perfect our back moves with the help of Mr Brooker, so we could effectively perform them in game situations. In addition, the forwards spent lots of time working on lineouts and pods which were very beneficial to our overall matches. Finally, especially for me, I built lots more confidence when tackling through persistent practice in training.
As a B team, I would definitely say that it was our best, and most enjoyable, season at King’s so far. I feel as if we were united as a team, building chemistry week in and week out, which greatly benefitted our enjoyment and the outcome of match days. In addition, our decision making and confidence on the pitch greatly increased throughout the season due to lots of practice and discussions into what is the right decision based on the situation.
For seasons to come, I would like to improve upon the skills we learnt this year so we can continue to dominate in matches. In addition, we want to grow the team spirit which has thrived within our team over the last few seasons.
Our season started with some mixed results including a win at home to London Oratory as well as defeats to Reed’s and RGS Guilford. From the beginning of our season, we knew defence would be key for us to have successful results. This was found out very clearly against Cranleigh as we failed to make strong, dominant tackles leading us to another defeat.This was the same against Hurst, however after we had the half term break away, we came back against Trinity and put in a much stronger defensive performance allowing us to play much better rugby. In our last two out of three games we picked up wins, showing a clear improvement from the beginning of the season till now. We had more structure in attack and much braver tackles were made in defence. Our last game of the season away to St John’s truly showed how far we had come as a group and looking forward to next season, we look to get as far as we can in the Natwest Cup.
Jack Turner (fourth form)
The U12As had a really enjoyable season overall and the team had some really positive moments throughout the season. My most memorable highlight this year was during the sevens tournament when we beat Epsom strongly in very tough conditions and went on to win the tournament. Everyone played well on that day. As a team, we progressed significantly throughout the year and one move we added to our locker was the X move which went straight into our game. Another very memorable performance was when we played Emanuel and drew on the school site. It was an incredibly hard-working performance by everyone and I think that was our best match as a team. I think that next year we can compete with the top schools, however, next year we need to work at the breakdown so that everyone in the team feels at ease going into the breakdown rather than just a few players. Next year, I think we have a great chance of doing really well and improving on this year’s overall performance.
Sam Bowles (year 7)
Our first game at school was against Reed’s. At the start of the game we were up by one try however it quickly progressed to 28-14 to Reed’s. We were up against our try line for 15 minutes, just barely keeping them off but at the end I managed to get the ball and scored in between the posts. We won the game at the end by two points from a conversion. As the season progressed we managed to develop lots of skill with the nail and we used them to our advantage throughout the season, scoring multiple times with it.We also built on them with moves like Gloucester and alpha. Next year we hope to progress our scrummaging abilities and our tackling. Another notable match was the last match of the season where Harry Mackay made more than 10 amazing try-saving tackles as the fall back. Even though we lost the game by two tries, it was one of our best games. Across the term the thing that improved the most was our lineouts because we managed to get them from a point of never having done one before to winning almost every one.The backs also improved the passing movement and support lines with forwards.
Freddie Hagon (fourth form)
This year’s Senior Prefects’ Dinner was a real success. After a year filled with beginning of term services, tours of the school, house events and, perhaps most importantly, weekly breakfasts, the prefects came together to celebrate the end of our time at King’s with some of the teachers who have been so integral to it. As teachers and students alike arrived, decked out in black tie attire, conversation began to flow, consisting of much reflection on the last few years and anticipation for those ahead. Before long, we were sitting down to dinner. Whilst this exquisite threecourse meal, served by our skilled catering staff, was certainly a close second, the speeches made by school captains Alex Defterios and Xavier Cooke were undoubtedly the highlights of the evening. Xavier’s introspective words on our tenure as prefects, from the Senior Prefects’ BBQ to the weekly breakfast, highlighted the plethora of pleasurable moments we had shared. In
The final day of term offered the perfect occasion for reflecting on the academic year and celebrating all the achievements pupils have made since September 2022. This year’s Prizegiving ceremony took place in the marquee, with a brilliant prize giver and the Chair of Governors, Lord Deighton. joining Dr Cotton for this special event.
We were delighted to welcome back award-winning adventure filmmaker and King’s alumnus James Levelle who gave out the awards and
the same vein, Alex dwelt upon how a “culmination of seemingly insignificant interactions” had developed the senior prefect team into a small, tight-knit community, able to bring levity during any circumstance. Last but certainly not least, Mr Amlot spoke on behalf of all the teachers, and his light-hearted yet meaningful words resonated with each of us. All in all, the evening was an unforgettable finale to our time at King’s, and as we pass on the baton to those in the year below, we hope that they will have as enjoyable a time as we have had.
Angie Campbell and Emmanuel Adeyemi,
vice-captains of school (upper sixth)
delivered an inspiring address to a rapt audience of assembled pupils and colleagues from across the senior school.
The programme captured the celebratory mood perfectly with a selection of beautiful musical performances from the lower school piano trio, as well as a fantastic dramatic piece from Guys and Dolls which was performed by members of the middle school and sixth form. The event came to end with some eloquent words of thanks offered by the captains of school, Keira and Ben (both in lower sixth) and the school year ended with a rousing round of applause.
Miss C. RamgoolamJust to set the record straight, I want to speak like them when I grow up” said a senior member of staff after the captains of school had spoken, which summed up the eloquent and profound nature of the speeches given at this year’s Leavers’ Dinner. This was a wonderful occasion full of reminiscing on a time gone-by, and looking forward to what the future may hold now school days are no longer. The dinner was sublime, the choir sang angelically before grace and the marquee, beautifully decorated with flowers and lights, was filled with content chatter and excitement before the main event: the speeches given by the head and the two captains of school.
Xavier has kindly allowed us to reproduce his speech here in the school magazine:
Miss M Kidwell
I started my time at King’s with the poem, Rising Five by Norman Nicholson, when presented with it in my 11+ interview, and its illustration of the constant yearning for what the future holds has stuck with me ever since my first reading of it as a nervous 10-year-old.The poem is about a young, dynamic, and forward-looking boy who is “not four” years old, but “rising five”; it criticises how we naturally negate, and never fully appreciate the present, replacing it constantly with the idea of moving impatiently towards what is yet to come.
Yet, however accurately this message may resonate in many instances, I believe that we really have made the most of our days here at King’s. Speaking in terms of time here that we have all shared together: in a set of two years of such uncertainty and change, that is so focused on the future – where it is so easy to become consumed by the daunting prospects of
university destinations, planning gap years, public exams, or even anxiously anticipating an 18th birthday – it has all too often been difficult to soak up everything around us, and just enjoy the moment. A moment which, yes, is now behind us, but I’m sure we all take plenty of fond memories from.
Tonight is a night of recognition, celebration and, importantly, transition. Interestingly, some, particularly in the US, would call this kind of event a ‘commencement’ ceremony, a word which we all would understand to mean the ‘beginning’ of something. We’re in an awkward spot. School is done, exams are all over (A level people, you took your time). We are now leaving a huge stage of our lives totally behind us. However, tonight does not only mark the end of a major era of our lives, but rather heralds the start of whatever may be up next. We are, officially, no longer schoolboys and -girls, but indeed, rising professionals, scholars, and adults – which is scary. But this does not mean that we should get ahead of ourselves and become overly absorbed in and obsessed with what the next years may hold. So, let’s not, as in Nicholson’s poem, “drop our youth behind us like a boy throwing away his toffee wrappers”, but rather take this evening to relish our last moment at school all together, look back on the years we have been here – however many that may be (2, 4, 5, 7, or even 11) – and cherish all the ups and downs of what has been a truly special time.
I’d like to give a huge thank you, first of all, to our teachers, who have steered us through every moment. We all appreciate your incessant support more than I can express up here, and really cannot thank you enough for being such great mentors. Students – thank you for making the days so enjoyable; prefects in particular, for every hand given and breaktime sacrificed this year; as well as Angie and Manny especially for a whole lot of work behind the scenes. And parents – thank you for all of your unending support through every single day of what we can now call the entirety of our school careers.
Best of luck to all with whatever awaits, and particularly to IB pupils over the next few days. Many thanks and enjoy the rest of the evening.
This year’s out-going upper sixth made some phenomenal achievements across school life, and they earned some outstanding results in their final exams, too: 53% of all exams were awarded an A* or the IB equivalent and 85% of all results were at A*/A or the IB equivalents.
Dr Cotton said: “I am immensely proud of our upper sixth leavers.Their dedication and commitment is what underpins these tremendous academic accomplishments, and they enriched the life of our community in so many areas – from the West End stage, to national musical success, to international sporting achievement. They have grown as leaders within school, as well as making a sustained contribution to our wider communities.”
King’s STEM legend, Ranesh Ratnesan (A levels: Chemistry, Further Maths, Maths, Physics) is celebrating top results this year as he heads to Cambridge to pursue a degree in Mathematics. He takes with him a host of jaw-dropping achievements including country-topping performances in the Physics, Mathematics and Informatics Olympiads, and his captaincy of the U18 England chess team, on the back of being a multiple-time national chess champion!
This year’s school captain team could not be better ambassadors for the school, demonstrating a commitment to equality, inclusion and diversity within the school and beyond. School captain, Alex Defterios showed commitment to so many areas of school life but her involvement in the founding of the Wimbledon Charter will leave an enduring legacy; meanwhile, one of the many distinctions earned by vice-captain of school, Emmanuel Adeyemi’s was as a leading figure in the school’s African Caribbean Society. Both achieved outstanding A level grades this summer and King’s loss will be Cambridge’s gain as Alex takes up her place to read History, and Emmanuel begins his studies in Medicine.
Kaitlin Hewitt (A level: Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Psychology) paired academic excellence with a deep commitment to improving the world around her. As well as being a winner of the 2022 King’s Essay Prize, Kaitlin was a central member of the LGBT+ and King’s Pride group and a committed member of King’s environmental group Blue Marble, too. No doubt she will bring this compassion and advocacy to her new community at UCL where she will be studying Biochemistry.
Several of this year’s highest achievers share a particular flair for the written and spoken word. Martine Maugüé (IB HL: English, History, Spanish) was one of Foyle’s Young Poets of the Year, as well as being a keen actor and competition winning-debater, too! She takes her talent to Cambridge to read English, where she will be joined by another awesome communicator: Ben Birch’s (A levels: English Literature, History, French, Religious Studies) oratory talent earned him many accolades, including the role of President of both the Debating Society and the History and Politics Society. Another competition-winning debater, Diya Asawa (IB HL: Biology, Chemistry, Psychology) collected awards for her writing, too. She was a winner of both the Imperial College ‘I, Science’ journalism competition and the Wimbledon Bookfest Young Writers’ Competition. Her brilliant results and next steps take her on to study Biomedical Sciences at UCL.
And some pupils’ achievements extended beyond the English language… John Macmillan (IB HL: Economics, Maths, Spanish) communication and leadership skills made him an ideal choice for Corporal in the Army section of the CCF and Assistant-Director of The History Boys, but it was his convincing command of Spanish that won him ‘Best Actor’ in the Spanish Theatre Festival. He plans to study Economics after a gap year. It is no surprise that Charles Hume (A levels: Biology, Chemistry, French, Spanish) is taking up a place to read Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge: his linguistic gifts made him a strong competitor in modern language debates, an excellent co-lead of Spanish language lessons with partnership pupils, and won him the University of Sheffield French Translation competition.
This cohort of students included some phenomenal dramatists: Tom Conroy and Tabby Nott shared a love of drama at King’s which resulted in them sharing the stage as the leads in this year’s Senior Production, Shakespeare In Love. Tabby studied A levels in English, Biology, and History, which are taking her to a History degree at Oxford; while Tom’s top grades in Drama, Economics and Psychology will inform his pursuits during his gap year. Fellow-thespian, Dean Chaumoo (A levels: Chemistry, Maths, Further Maths, Physics), featured in the film The Kid Who Would be King as well as many King’s productions including The Hunchback and Romeo & Juliet. His next stop is Oxford, where he will study Medicine.
Every year has its share of talented musicians and the 2023 cohort is certainly no exception. Lucas Dick (Maths, Philosophy, Physics) may be heading to Bristol to read Aerospace Engineering but he takes with him a fearsome musical resume that includes being a finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, as well as being 1st clarinet in the National Youth Orchestra. Meanwhile Tyr Hogsander, a highly skilled tuba player, drummer and percussionist and this year’s Brass Competition prize winner, earned a string of top A level grades (Economics, Maths, RS and Psychology) and goes on to study Land Economy at Cambridge; and brilliant flautist Izzy Staples (A levels: Biology, Chemistry, History, Maths)who holds diplomas with distinction in both flute and musical theatre, and who wowed the judges at this year’s Pro-Corda competition - will be reading Arts & Sciences at UCL.
A cadet staff sergeant with the Army section of the CCF and a competitive cyclist, too, Mattie Dodd is taking his string of excellent A level grades in French, Geography and Psychology, and riding off to a career as a professional competitive cyclist with Tirol-KTM.
Alex Adair (A levels: Art, English, History, Maths) was the keenest of hockey players: accolades include being Captain of the 1st XI; playing in the European Hockey League in Rotterdam with Wimbledon HC; representing Weybridge Performance Centre; and competing in the National League of Men’s Hockey with Old Cranleighan’s 1st team. He takes up a place to read English Language and Literature at Oxford.
Fleur Blase leaves King’s in a blaze of glory having coxed for Team GB this summer, bringing home three gold medals and one silver. Unsurprisingly, she has been snapped up by Stanford University for their rowing programme, following her excellent IB results (HL Economics, French, History).
The King’s 1st girls’ hockey, netball and tennis squads all benefited from sports scholar Flo Murphy’s exceptional commitment to school life. Alongside her A level studies in Biology, Chemistry and Maths and her sport, Flo also won a Gold in the Biology Olympiad and a Silver in the Chemistry Olympiad! She is now heading to Oxford to read Biomedical Sciences.
Top sportsman Niklas Manthey (IB HL: Chemistry, Maths, Physics) is taking a gap year as he aims for Mechanical Engineering at ETH Zürich, following a stellar career at King’s. Academically excellent, he was also a 1st team tennis player and a highly-skilled footballer, playing for the King’s 1st XI, the U18s at Kingstonian FC and for the Chelsea development team, too!
Congratulations to all the upper and lower fifth pupils who received exam results this year.
67% of all upper fifth (year 11) results have been awarded the top grade 9, and 90% of all exams have been graded 9/8 (A* equivalent).
Over half of the cohort achieved at least eight grade 9s, and 53 pupils achieved a sweep of ten or more qualifications at grade 9.
Lower fifth (year 10) French results are also extremely strong, with 99% grade 9/8.
We are delighted for our pupils, whose dedication is reflected in these tremendous results, which complement their endeavours across so many aspects of school life, from the sports field to concert hall.
Rowers Massi Tondo, Alastair Heathcote, Felix Sitter and Benjamin Hughes displayed spirit, accomplishment and excellence both in and out of the classroom this year and the summer season brought just rewards for their determination and endeavour. July started on a high when they put in an excellent performance against Eton, Westminster and Latymer and were selected to represent Great Britain; then August brought a string of top results for each, too.
Embodying talent, intellect and passionate commitment of another kind, Desmond Zee joined an extremely elite group this year when he obtained his LRSM diplomawith distinction - from the Royal Schools of Music. He is one of only three King’s pupils ever to have earned this award which is usually only achieved at undergraduate level, and Desmond had even more reason to celebrate when he received 11 brilliant (I) GCSE grades in August.
We say a fond farewell to the following members of the staff and wish them all the best in their future endeavours beyond the King’s community.
Ms J Blunden
Miss H Boumazouna
Mrs E Britton
Mr G Cawley
Mr M Cole
Miss AV Eilert
Mr W Forse
Mr A Foster
Miss L Gillard
Deputy Head of English
Teacher of Maths
Head of Psychology
Teacher of Physics
Head of Kingsley and Teacher of Physics
Deputy Director of IB and Teacher of Chinese and English
Assistant Head (Admissions and Marketing) and Teacher of Maths
Teacher of Physics and Deputy Head of PSHE
Junior school Head of Art and Design
Mr S Griffin Graduate Sports’ assistant
Mr T Heaton Teacher of Design and Engineering
Ms J Lowson Senior Deputy Head and Teacher of History
Mr J McGarey Teacher of Chemistry and Acting Deputy Head of Sixth Form
Mrs H Morren
Mr J Painter
Mr H Poole
Miss A Rawlings
Mr J Short Ring
Miss A Rodrigues
Miss C van Oosterom
Mr O Wheatley
Junior school Deputy Head and Teacher of Maths
Teacher of Biology
Teacher of Economics
Acting Head of Girls’ games
Deputy Head and Teacher of History
Technical supervisor for Physics department
Head of LS Kingsley and Teacher of Art
Deputy Head of History and Politics
Mrs K Winter Teacher of Learning Enrichment
Inmemoriam Dr Kevin Ralley Teacher of Physics at King’s College School
