Colfe’s school has sadly learnt that one of our oldest former Colfeians, Robert Campbell Muir has passed away, peacefully in his sleep, at the age of 104.

Robert’s daughter, Maggie, contacted the school last year when Robert moved to a retirement home near Newport Pagnell.  Maggie was keen to piece together her father’s remarkable life, and staff at Colfe’s were very happy to help. They found that Robert, who was born in 1909, was admitted to the school in September 1923 and according to Colfe’s roll book, which is used for entries pre-computerisation, and copies of the Colfensia, the old school magazine, Robert Campbell Muir lived at Belmont Park; played an active role in school life, coming 4th in the Junior Harriers race; played in the House Cricket team, and showed musical ability by singing a solo in the school concert on 15th April 1924.   

Robert’s remarkable life included service in the Army, Navy and Air Force; becoming Squadron Leader with a remarkable 59 missions in Mosquitos during WW2 and being awarded the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross), an award given for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy.  Robert remained active and lively throughout his life even making his first trip on a zip wire for his 99th birthday and living independently until he was 103.
Last year Maggie told us, “My father is absolutely delighted that he is back in touch with his old school, and is looking forward to reading the most recent Colfeian and Roebucks to see how much life has changed for modern day Colfeians.”

Robert is survived by one daughter, two Grandchldren and two great grandchildren.   The funeral will be on 11 February  at Norse Road Cemetery, Bedford.

It is always good to hear that our 6th form linguists have gone on to pursue language studies, career paths or gap years involving their languages and this year is no exception.  Julie Cummings is currently working as an au-pair in Paris and has this to say about her experience so far:

“Actually living in France is very different from just studying French in the classroom; on my first day I heard “Dépêche-toi” about a million times at the school gates when collecting the children and it made me realize I would quickly have to get used to colloquial language spoken in context. 

On the other hand, A Level really prepared me well for grammar, being the only English girl in my language class, it is clear that I have covered a lot more grammar topics than the German, Spanish or Flemish people, despite the fact we are all the same level and age. 
One thing I’ve found really different about Paris is the way in which people behave on the Métro. There’s no such thing as ‘wait until people get off first’, which means that on more than one occasion I’ve missed my stop for being too polite (and perhaps naïve) in waiting for people to let me off first. I’m a little ashamed to say now I’ve adapted a more Parisian attitude and just join the masses who push on as soon as the doors open. 

Being an au pair is a unique experience; it’s very odd because the family you live with play the role of both boss and family. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to take a gap year before studying languages at university; in the last 3 months my French has improved more than in 7 years in the classroom. I was counting out apples in the supermarket last week and I automatically started counting in French, I got to about 5 and realised but then was so excited I changed back to English. I’ve also noticed than I can now eavesdrop on conversations on the metro! Although these anecdotes probably sound silly, they feel like huge wins and are evidence for me that all my efforts are actually paying off. I’ve started regularly going to ‘Franglish’ events, which is a language exchange where you speak with a French person for 7 minutes in French and then change to English so you can learn from each other. It’s quite awkward at first but once you learn to not consciously conjugate verbs in your head and just speak it becomes relaxed and fun. They run events in Paris and London and I really recommend them to anyone doing A Level, it will help an incredible amount with your confidence; the oral was my biggest fear because I wanted everything I said to be exactly perfect, but I’ve realised if you just make the effort to address people in their native language, chances are they will appreciate it, regardless of how many errors you make. http://www.franglish.eu

In September 2014 I will be starting Bristol University to study French and Spanish, this year out has been absolutely priceless in helping me to prepare and if anyone has any more questions don’t hesitate to ask me! “ 

Old Colfeian, Co-owner and Chairman of Premiership Football Club Crystal Palace, Steve Parish, has come back to Colfe's to give an inspirational talk to pupils and teachers about how to make a success of your life.    48 year old Steve, who joined Colfe’s  in 1976, focused his talk to the packed Beardwood Theatre, on his time at school and his ingredients for success, which included the Colfeian qualities of perseverance, hard work, knowledge, integrity and leadership.  

Steve, who bought Crystal Palace FC in 2010 and sold his Advertising Company: Tag, in 2011 said, “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about Colfe’s and I am extremely grateful to the school.  It encouraged me to express my opinions and gave me a level of education and confidence which I didn’t appreciate and realise how valuable it was until I left school and met other people in the real world.  I didn’t go to university and  while my parents wanted me to go into the Insurance business, I realised that this really wasn’t what I wanted to do; it was a pivotal moment and I haven’t looked back.   It is so important to do something you enjoy and love; come to terms with what you’re good at, and persevere at it.”

Accompanying Steve was Chairman of the Old Colfeians FC, Gary Warner.  Gary was at Colfe’s with Steve and they have remained good friends ever since.  Gary said “It’s been thirty years since Steve and I were at Colfe’s and we just felt like we'd come home. Colfeians are still so friendly, down to earth and confident; it hasn’t changed. The Old Colfeians FC  is entering a new and exciting stage and I would urge the younger Colfeians, to join us when the leave school, and keep the ties and continuity with the school”

Taking questions after the talk, Steve was asked by one of the pupils why he bought Palace. He said “I’ve been a Palace Fan since I was four years old because they had a better kit at the time than other teams!  Co-owning the club was a real dream for me and I am very proud of the club and what we’ve achieved in getting into the Premiership. It’s great to meet the next generation of Colfeians who are so passionate about the game.”

12 year old Connor  Macdonald,  who has started Year 7 football training with the school, said “I enjoyed the talk because Steve Parish was successful in a sport that I really enjoy, even though he said he’d never played football!.  I liked that he also went to Colfe’s, because it made me think that I could achieve great things too.”

See also:
News Shopper Article

Half Term trips included a Classics trip to Rome, a cricket tour to South Africa and a CCF camp in Gibraltar. The whole of Year 8 departed for Outdoor Pursuits in Wales last weekend and Year 9 will soon be heading for the woods of Oxfordshire for bushcraft. These latter two trips mark the start of our annual programme of Outdoor Pursuits, with numerous pupils due to embark on Duke of Edinburgh
expeditions between now and July. Colfe’s is one of few schools which has its own Duke of Edinburgh awarding licence. This reflects the very high degree of confidence which the awarding authority has in the quality and professionalism of Chris Cherry’s operation. Chris will also oversee an enhanced programme of prep school outdoor pursuits next term, culminating in a Year 6 camp in Dorset.

I was delighted to hear that our Year 6 rugby team had made it into the final stages (last 8) of the national rugby tournament, having watched the corresponding football team winning a convincing victory over Eltham College before half term. Meanwhile our fledgling Year 3 netball team won four out of their six matches in the their first ever tournament whilst top swimmers in Year 5 and Year 6 have made it through to the finals of the Kent primary schools’ gala. Particular congratulations to Denny Ashison and Libby Bach who will compete in the finals of the 50m freestyle and breast stroke respectively. This follows a debut swimming gala for Year 3 pupils earlier this week and swimming lessons for pre-prep pupils who were keen to assure me that they could all swim when I met them coming back from the pool on Tuesday.

Further up the school, I was delighted to hear that all senior teams, including the 4^th X1, were successful in their block fixture against Epsom College last Saturday. We wish them well for the corresponding fixture against Sevenoaks School tomorrow.  The Year 7 team won their first ever football fixture in the first round of the Bromley Cup, with a 3-1 victory over Hayes and a particularly impressive debut in goal
for Teddy Cameron Burke. Within the context of football, it was a particular pleasure to welcome Old Colfeian Steve Parish back to the school last week. Steve is currently Chairman of Crystal Palace, having pursued a highly successful business career since he left Colfe’s in the early 1980s. His address to an
audience of pupils, (not just footballers and not just CP fans,) was genuinely inspiring and we hope to see more of him at Colfe’s in future. 

I was also delighted to hear that the senior girls’ netball team remains apparently invincible with massive victories this week over Bromley High on Tuesday (64-14) and Hayes on Wednesday (62-2). Indeed Wednesday was a particularly busy day for sport in that we found ourselves hosting the Kent U16 Sevens Tournament at Colfe’s when the original venue was pronounced water-logged. The weather has not deterred our cross-country runners, two of whom have recently won trophies in the Greenwich and
Lewisham league. Congratulations to Maia Albarosa and particularly to Tom Simpson who came first in his most recent race. Both Maia and Tom have been selected to participate in the mini-marathon, along with Simone Korsgaard Jensen, Megan Marchant, Charlotte Kirk and Benjamin Tynan. 

Thanks, as ever, to Mrs Rayes and her colleagues for supporting such a variety of sporting activity at all levels within the school.

Away from the sports field, we have been celebrating National Book Week which, inter alia, gave me an opportunity to reiterate my loathing for Pride and Prejudice. Events have included Reading around the World, a marathon reading event involving pupils in Years 7 and 8. We are grateful to the English department and to our Librarian Mrs Cardnell who tells me that the level of book borrowing at Colfe’s has risen significantly this year. Meanwhile top mathematicians have been competing in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, with Callum Melly and Ben Andrew qualifying for the prestigious Pink Kangaroo Paper at the end of this month. Maths looks likely to be our most popular A level subject next year, incidentally, with 52 Year 11 pupils indicating that they want to study it.

Debating and public speaking also remain popular in the senior school, with conspicuous success in the recent English Speaking Union (ESU) competition. Daisy Battersby won an award for best speaker and we
look forward to hearing of  her further success in future competitions. I am grateful to Mr Dunsmore for his consistent support for this important activity. 

Other individual highlights of the last two weeks include:        

• Anousha Li-Sue Foulds who was invited to visit the prestigiousMetallurgy Lab at Cambridge University. 
• Ben Bowne in Year 6 who has been invited to audition for a part in the West End production of Billy Elliot.       
• Leonardo Bertocchi who won gold at the Independent School’s Championships for the second year running.  We wish him well as he continues his training with the England squad.      
• 6^th Former James Maby who as part of the London Youth Choir sang with Brit winner Ellie Golding in the Wembley arena as part of a large charity event. Guest speakers at the event included Al Gore.
• Samveer Parris who  acquired a prized work placement with McLaren over the
  summer.

Finally, it was great to see so many Nursery parents at the reception last week, following the opening of
our wonderful new nursery classrooms. This marks the completion of the first stage of the pre-prep expansion. The two storey extension remains on schedule and will certainly be ready for September. We look forward to the removal of the temporary nursery classrooms when the weather has improved.

Old Colfeian Miles Ashdown has won a national competition playing the guitar in a band set up by his brother, Murray.  The band, LOWERCASE, beat hundreds of entries to win the competition to help launch bestselling children’s author Robert Muchamore’s new book “Rock Wars”.  Miles, who is taking a gap year before going to university said, “This has been an exciting year for me so far and I’m delighted that we were the winning band and got to play at Muchamore’s book launch. The competition was stressful as it was down to a public vote and I’m very grateful to all those who liked our song and voted for us.  I’m also very proud of Murray who wrote, produced, recorded and sang the band’s entry. I am also grateful for all the support and encouragement I have got from Colfe’s – particularly the music department, who have really ignited my passion for singing and encouraged me to pursue my music.”

This has been a busy time for Miles who has an offer from Kings College, London, to study Music.  Miles said,“I sang with the prestigious Rodolphus choir on New Year’s Day which was broadcast live on Radio Three and I’ve also just been accepted into the National Youth Choir.  I was also pleased that being a scholar with the London Youth Chamber Choir enabled me to be part of a film, which is out this year, called 'The Beat Beneath your Feet' starring the actor Luke Perry.  I’m enjoying my music and working hard at it; just seeing where it takes me. So far it is working out well - this is turning out to be a really exciting time.”

Hello, I just wanted to contribute some news for the Colfeian journal/newsletter.

I left Colfe's in 1997 and went to Cambridge where I met my husband Simon. We're celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary this month, we had a baby called Thida last year, and I've just written my first cookbook Noodle! (Absolute Press) which is published in May and celebrates 100 noodle recipes for every occasion - stir-fries, soups, sauces, salads and snacks with flavours from across the world using wheat, rice and egg noodles to buckwheat noodles and beyond.

Thank you, MiMi  - PS here's an extract
 
[MiMi, if you'd like to send a copy of your book to the development office, I'd be happy to try out and review a few of the recipes! Perhaps I could persuade the school chef to try a few for lunch too... - Ed.]

www.meemalee.com
@meemalee
meemalee's kitchen

Dear Parents

I was extremely grateful to those of you who supported the Colfe’s Careers Convention last night. Old Colfeians and parents collectively provided insight into a wide range of options for the future, including Medicine, Law, Finance, Architecture, Science, Media and Local Government. This underscores our commitment to preparing our pupils for life beyond university. Within that context I was delighted to hear recently that more than 80% of our current U6th students have now received offers from at least one Russell group university. My thanks to Mrs Cardnell, Head of Higher Education and Careers, for all that she continues to do to support our pupils in their various aspirations.

The Design Technology show on Thursday of last week was an opportunity for GCSE and 6^th form pupils to display their work to pupils and parents. The pupils were encouraged to explain their work to parents and visitors, including the creative process which lies behind the completed artefacts. There is currently much excitement in the department about the planned purchase of a 3D printer and I was delighted to hear that Mrs Matthews, our head of department, has been appointed to act as an ambassador for the Arkwright Foundation which spearheads the promotion of product design in schools nationally.

Other academic achievements of the last two weeks have included that of three sixth formers who have passed the prestigious Goethe-Zertifikat B1 examination, an independent and demanding German exam which serves as official proof of language proficiency by the German Government. Congratulations to Harry Graham (who scored 100% on the oral component), Samveer Parris and Alex Winter. Other 6^th Form linguists are currently being examined in the equivalent French DELF (Diplome d’Etudes en Langue Francaise) examination whilst Prep School pupils in Year 4 have been concentrating on Spanish language and culture this term including, inter alia, a hugely popular Flamenco workshop. Even pre-prep pupils have been actively engaged in languages this week, with an after school French club run by our senior school French language assistant.

Sixth Form biologists have also excelled in the National Biology Olympiad which attracted more than 5000 applicants nationwide. Sam Winter won a gold award which places him in the top 6% of the cohort. Other awards were won by Rachel Potter, Jessica Farrow and, in the L6th, by Daniel Graham, Eleonore Ocana and Oliver Vij.

Sporting highlights of note have included the following:

·         U12 netball team have won the Bromley Schools Tournament for the second year running, retaining their unbeaten record.

·         U13 rugby sevens team who took 2^nd place in the Kent Tournament.

·         Brendan McMillan and Joe Kennard (Year 11) who represented Kent in an international British Schools team which won a convincing victory over a European team recruited from France Belgium and the Netherlands.

·         Prep School sailor Barnaby Marchant, Year 6, who was presented with his Intermediate Racing certificate in assembly.

·         Georgia Noone, year 9, who was one of just seven young horse riders chosen from the whole of Kent, Essex, Surrey and Sussex to try out for the coveted  Rider Development Pathway.

·         Olivia McAuliffe and Rosie Carey in Year 4 who were awarded badges in swimming proficiency after they  succeeded in swimming for one mile (64 lengths)

·         Tobi Ogunjimi who took the silver medal in the 60m event at the Kent Indoor Championships missing out on a gold medal by just 0.01 of a second.  

Girls’ cricket is already under way in preparation for next term and we wish our prep school swimmers well for their forthcoming involvement in the Kent Primary Schools Gala at Medway Park.

Meanwhile Prep school musicians Ella and Louis Richardson swept the board in the Bromley Music Festival, winning a handful of medals and the prestigious Stratford Junior Trophy for Piano (Ella) and a cup for winning the preliminary Double bass class and an award for most promising guitarist (Louis). Last week’s platform concert featured a wonderful range of musical talent and we look forward to the Spring Concert next Tuesday which will be the major music event of the term.

Most of you will know that PAFA Chair Dawn Bennett is already well-advanced with her plans for the PAFA Ball next term. Tickets remain available and details are available on the school website. Parents should also know that Dawn will be stepping down from the Chair at the end of this academic year. There will be many opportunities between now and the end of next term to thank her for all that she has done for the school during her highly successful period of office. Looking to the future, I would be like to hear from any of you who would be interested in getting more involved with PAFA next year. Please feel free to contact me direct on head@colfes.com

With best wishes for the last week and a half of term,

Yours sincerely

Richard Russell

Headmaster

Last week’s seasonal events included the Spring Concert, the prep school production of Wind in the Willows, the pre-prep Easter Assembly and a presentation to Year 11 pupils and parents from the Tougher Minds team on GCSE revision. The Spring Concert featured some particularly strong choral works, involving pupils of all ages. It was also the last performing opportunity for our Upper Sixth musicians who will be deep into their A level exams at the time of the Summer Concert next term. Wind in the Willows was an enormous triumph, courtesy of Mrs Welch and Year 5 pupils. The acting and singing were consistently excellent for an hour and a half, a fantastic sustained achievement for pupils of that age.

We also welcomed U6th pupils and parents to their last ever Colfe’s parents’ evening last week. As previously reported, many of our U6th pupils are holding offers from top UK universities this year. In the light of recent HEFCE research raising once again the spectre of positive discrimination in favour of state sector pupils, I wish to make it absolutely clear that we have detected no signs of hostility to our candidates in recent years. In common with other successful independent schools, we have seen our success rate with Russell Group universities rise consistently since the introduction of tuition fees. Having attended meetings with the Vice-Chancellors of eight Russell Group universities over the last three years, I have found them to be consistent in their desire to recruit applicants of high calibre, regardless of background.

In sport our Rugby Sevens across the school have finished a very successful season culminating in three pieces of silverware with wins for our U16s, 1^st V11 and U13, all of whom played exceptionally well against formidable opponents like Judd, Sevenoaks, Skinners and Kings Rochester.  The U12 netball team narrowly lost out on a gold medal at the Kent Schools Netball Tournament in Rainham by just one goal. This team have remained undefeated in league fixtures throughout the season, reinforcing the exceptional standard of netball in the school. Our younger swimmers in the Prep School performed very strongly in the Kent Primary Schools Final and finished amongst the top six schools in the competition. 

A number of pupils, colleagues, parents and friends of the school have been training for the forthcoming London Marathon and its Mini counterpart. Please sponsor them if you have not already done so. On a related theme I was delighted to hear of the success of our cross country runners in Years 7 and 8 who performed particularly well in the Greenwich Championships. Best of luck also to Huw and Evan Olding who will be running three miles round Greenwich Park at the end of April to raise money for the Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice.

Other recent beneficiaries of Colfe’s charity have been Sports Relief, The Rio Ferdinand Foundation and the Teenage Cancer Trust. Activities have included a sponsored swim (prep school) and the sports relief mile run (senior school). The single greatest generator of funds was a gala dinner, organized by Jeremiah St Fort (year 10) and other pupils who will be participating in the forthcoming Operation Wallacea expedition to Madagascar in July,  raising an impressive £66,250.

Other recent Colfeian  individual achievements include the following:

·         Music Scholar Ruby Collins who received a personal invitation to  join the prestigious Barbican Youth Orchestra featuring 54 of the top musicians in the country.

·         Saxophonist Sam Barnett who played a 20 minute gig at the Ideal Home Exhibition in London including his own compositions.  He is due to  perform as the winner of the Mayor of London’s GIGs competition at Trafalgar Square over Easter.

·         Eloise and Bea Hembrough who scored all three winning goals for  Charlton Athletic FC in their recent league match against Brentford,  earning them a special mention on Charlton’s official website.

·         Leonardo Bertocchi consolidated his Judo ranking as 3^rd in UK with a silver medal in his latest competition in Belfast

·         Old Colfeian MiMi Aye who is due to release her first cookbook Noodle! next month.

Study trips to Bonn (German) and China (Geography) will be amongst the highlights of the Easter break, along with the CCF cadets’ visit to RAF Leeming. Sarah Marsh, Head of Prep goes on maternity leave today and we wish her well. Gordon James, interim Head of Prep, has been in school throughout this week and last. He is looking forward to taking over at the start of next term. I am confident that Mr James will bring the benefit of his considerable experience to Prep and Pre-prep alike, drawing on his many years of successful headship at St Aubyn’s School in Woodford Green.

Cricket teams of all ages (girls and boys) are already in training for next term and enabling works on the new Sixth Form complex will start during the break, coinciding with the removal of the temporary nursery accommodation. We have much to look forward to.

With best wishes for Easter

Richard Russell

Headmaster

This week’s highlights have included a significant accolade for the Languages department. The Spanish Embassy in London has identified the co-operation between our Spanish department and Spanish assistant, Mary Paz Espinoza Nuñez, as the best in the country. We celebrated their achievement with a visit from educational attaché Francisco García-Quiñonero who presented a prize to Mary. Other achievements of the MFL department this term have included that of six pupils in Years 10 and 11 who passed the DELF (Diplome d’Etudes en Langue Francaise) exam which is recognized by the French government and three sixthformers who passed the prestigious Goethe-Zertifikat B1 examination, in one case (Harry Graham) with full marks in the oral component.

The last few weeks have also been a busy time for our musicians who have taken part in the Summer Platform Concert in the senior school, the House Music Finals and a voice workshop, which provided an opportunity for our singers to spend the day training with professional singing group Apollo 5. Singing was also the central focus of the tea-time concert in the prep school on Wednesday.

Pupils in Years 7 and 8 accumulated nearly 60 certificates in the recent Junior Maths Challenge, with Year 7 putting in their best performance in recent years with eight Gold awards. Well done especially to Joshua Winters, Year 8, who qualifies for the prestigious (and accordingly difficult) Junior Maths Olympiad paper.

GCSE and A Level examinations are well underway already in the senior school. Teachers have been supporting their classes right up to the day of the examination and Upper 6^th students are enjoying their last official day in school today. Their collective diligence throughout this year justifies considerable optimism in respect of the results that they will achieve in August. As previously reported, the majority will progress to excellent universities next year. They have been a delightful group of pupils throughout their time at Colfe’s and we wish them well for the challenge of their final examinations. After Half Term, newly appointed School Captains, Marcus Brockman and Octavia Willoughby, will take over from Ollie Bowring and Sara Stevanovska who have done such a fantastic job this year.

Marcus, Octavia and all the other pupils in the Lower Sixth will be attending the UCAS information evening on the 16^th June, to which parents (of that year group) have also been invited. Angela Brueggemann, Colfe’s Governor and Oxford scientist, will be speaking at this event at which I will take the opportunity to provide an update on recent developments in higher education myself, drawing on ongoing experience of the HMC universities committee. This year’s work experience placements for sixth formers include opportunities with King’s College Hospital, Eversheds, 10 Downing St. Policy Unit and the British Consulate in Istanbul. As ever, we are grateful to parents and Old Colfeians for their support in this important area.

School examinations for pupils in Years 7-10 will take place after half term and revision materials can be accessed through the school portal. This material is also available to parents: if any of you experience difficulty accessing the school portal please do not hesitate to contact the IT department (ict_support@colfes.com)

The inexorable rise of girls’ cricket at Colfe’s continues, under the expert eye of Old Colfeian and English international, Susie Rowe. Events have included an U13 event which we hosted, involving 100 girls from local schools and a prep school cricket festival for local pupils in Year 5 in which Lydia Greenway, current England batswoman, played a key part.

Over 90 Colfe’s swimmers signed up to compete in our Prep school Individual Gala, involving all pupils in Year 6. I am grateful to our coaches, led by Miss Manzi and Miss Holder, who have done so much to generate this record level of involvement and enthusiasm. Our Year 7 and 8 tennis players performed strongly in the group stages of the prestigious Aegon Tennis Tournament, with our B team winning all their matches.   Our Athletes have also had a good start to the season, with Year 8 boys winning the Sutcliffe Park Invitational, and seven of our Year 9s taking part in five events each at the London Schools Combined Championships at Lee Valley.  Well done to Evan Macdonald who came third overall in a strong and numerous field, winning a bronze medal. 

Meanwhile a number of Colfe’s pupils from the Prep and Senior schools, produced some fine performances in the respected Crystal Palace Triathlon,  which attracts the top junior triathletes from across London and the South East.  Special mention to Tom Simpson in Year 8 who won his age group, even though he was competing in the Year 9 category.   We look forward to hosting the Aquathon for Greenwich Tritons next month.

Away from the sports field, there have been a number of successful trips including our Year 6 Bush Craft week in Dorset where the mackerel fishing was universally praised among staff and teachers as a highlight.  Our DOE candidates took part in a training day at Lenham in Kent, and Art and History combined for our Year 3s who took part in a very successful workshop with the charity Magic Lantern, learning more about Ancient Greek History through Art.  We are now looking forward to our popular Senior School Summer Art Exhibition which celebrates the work of our GCSE, AS and A-level students on the 5^th June.  All are welcome to attend.

Individual pupil achievements this term have included:

·         Benjamin Tynan in Year 7 who won the U13s Open Competition at Sutcliffe Park in both the 400m and 800m with times of 71.36 and 2.39

·         Daphne Pratt who helped Kent Girls win the U14 County Cup in tennis, the first time Kent has won in this age group. Daphne won 12 of her 14 matches.

·         Bea and Eloise Hembrough who helped Charlton Athletic FC, qualify for the ESF national Festival Finals in July at Warwick University

·         Patrick Korsgaard-Jensen, Finlay Hollington and Joshua Hawkins in Year 5 helped Blackheath Wanderers FC, gain promotion to division A after winning the Selkent League.

·         Georga Halloumas who won a silver medal in Judo in her club championships.

·         Flautist, Natasha Dixon in Year 10 who has been offered a place to study on Saturdays at the junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from September

In conclusion, I was delighted to receive the keys to our new Pre Prep and Nursery building which was formally handed over to us yesterday. The remaining ground works will be completed between now and September. Interested parents will be invited to view the new facilities after half term.

Further details of all of these events and achievements are on the news page of the website.

With best wishes for the half term break,

Richard Russell

Stage 3 - Chamonix to Chambery 4 Days, 529Kms, 12,911Ms of Climbing

When you have already completed two big rides in the last two years and asked friends, family and colleagues for donations to various charities, it is hard to ask again.  However, when you are asked to be part of a challenge to raise money for young people less fortunate than yourself it is hard to say no, so I am delighted to say that I am joining Lawrence and the Dallaglio Foundation for his third Dallaglio Cycle Slam!

Essentially the motivation for getting up the mountains of France is being able to raise money for young people affected by cancer and those who have not had the opportunities in life through their backgrounds and upbringing.

You can follow the me and see the route on the link below:

https://www.dallagliocycleslam.com/stage-3/

Your support would be gratefully received, for this, my biggest cycle challenge I have undertaken so far.

To kick start the journey I have put £250 into the pot.  

Best wishes

Matthew

PS If you know anyone who would be interested in these causes through the Dallaglio Foundation, please feel free to pass on this email.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MatthewHorder

The final days of this term have been an opportunity to celebrate a wonderful range of achievement throughout the school. We will also be saying farewell to a number of colleagues who will be leaving or retiring at the end of this year.

The focus of the Prep School prizegiving on Tuesday was our departing Year 6 pupils who not only received their leaving certificates but also provided all of the entertainment. School Captains and others spoke well on the stage. The Year 6 Art display, which has been in gestation since the autumn, was hugely impressive, transforming the otherwise functional surroundings of the sports hall. This event was also an opportunity for me to acknowledge our immense debt to Mrs Dawn Bennett who will be standing down as Chair of PAFA next term. She has done a fantastic job and been a tremendous force for good throughout her period of office. Many thousands of pounds have been raised by successive balls, discos, Christmas Fayres and firework displays. Dawn will remain in post officially until the Annual General Meeting next term.

For Lower 6th pupils, the second half of term has been all about UCAS and preparing for next year and beyond. Many have embarked on the Extended Project Qualification and our UCAS evening included a presentation by Colfe’s governor, Angela Brueggemann, on what constitutes a strong application. We have also heard from John O’Leary who compiles the university league tables for the Times. Ex School captain Charlie Whittaker also came back from Cambridge to support prospective Oxbridge candidates, having secured a place in the top 10% of his year cohort in Natural Sciences. Parents may be interested to know that the chances of getting an offer from some top universities, including Bristol and Warwick and the LSE, have actually improved for candidates from HMC schools such as Colfe’s in recent years. This has certainly been reflected in the impressive range of offers that I have seen this year.

The CCF staged their annual Parade Day on Saturday in the presence of Chairman of Governors, Ian Russell. The event was attended by torrential rain, testing to the limit Major Cherry’s mantra that there is “no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.”  The Returning Officer for the day was Air Vice-Marshall Martin Routledge, the most senior officer whom we have welcomed in this capacity in recent years. He was suitably and predictably impressed with our cadets.

In addition to the Chairman, other Governors and Leathersellers have been in school recently, notably for the Summer Visitation and of on Founder’s Day for the Colfe Sermon and subsequent cricket match. I am delighted to report that the school X1 were once again victorious over the Leathersellers and that their feedback after the Visitation was particularly positive. Reciprocally, the Leathersellers welcomed groups of Year7 pupils to the City earlier this week when they had access to the Guildhall and learnt much about the History of the Leathersellers’ Company, as well as about the City and its institutions. I am grateful to the Master Leatherseller, Mr Martin Pebody, for all his support this year and we look forward to welcoming his successor, Dr Anthony Watson, to Colfe’s early next term.

Forthcoming events include our first Science Fair which will take place on Friday, 11th July. Gifted pupils from a number of local state schools will be working alongside their Colfe’s counterparts on interactive laboratory workshops. They will also attend a series of mini-lectures delivered by scientists from Oxford who are at the cutting edge of their specialist areas. The initiative has been driven and developed by Colfe’s Governor, Angela Brueggemann and is part of Oxford University’s outreach programme. 
Parents may recall that I wrote to you recently to let you know about our inclusion as a case study in the national Ofsted enquiry into competitive sport in schools. This accolade has coincided happily with yet more recent success.

In athletics, four of our lower school pupils (Gabriel Foley, Luke Okosieme, Tom Simpson and James Back-Wilkins) won their events in the regional stages of the English Schools Athletics Competition. Tobi Ogunjimi, is now just .3 of a second short of the national 200 metres record for the U17 age group and Elias Balogun is currently ranked 5th in London for the 100 metres with a time of 11.31 seconds.. Five boys and girls in Years 8 and 9 have been invited to compete in the London Schools Championship and four pupils in those age groups are ranked among the top six in Kent. 

In cricket, the end of this term sees the departure of two of our most outstanding players in recent decades. Matthew Stiddard has captained the 1st X1 for the last three years and Harry Furze has played alongside him in that team for the last four years. Along with their team-mates, including Harry Graham and Abdul Rehman, they have done much to sustain the profile within the school of a sport which has suffered disproportionately from the encroachment of the public examination season. Players in other year groups are coming through strongly behind them, including Matthew Walker who continues to represent the Kent team in his year group and Prep School pupils Fiontan Logan and Finn McQueen who continue to play at county level in their age groups. Meanwhile the trajectory of girls’ cricket continues to rise, with our U13 team (which includes some Year 7 players) remaining undefeated this term.

As always, the end of the year sees the departure of a number of colleagues who have all contributed significantly to the school over a period of time, all of whom I was able to acknowledge at the Lower School Prizegiving on Wednesday. I wish to pay tribute in particular to Miss Hargrave and Mr Miller, who have both been stalwart supporters of school sport for the last 13 years. We look forward to welcoming Mr Miller back to Colfe’s before long in his new capacity as Director of Sport at Eltham College. We also hope to defeat all of his rugby teams. Mrs Vander Gucht also moves on at the end of this term, after 14 highly successful years at Colfe’s during which she has been a great force for good, both as Director of Drama and also as a Head of House. Mrs Barbara Durkin has been at the heart of the success of Colfe’s science for a decade as Head of Physics. We have benefited much from her wisdom and experience and we wish her well for retirement. Mrs Jenny Toms will also be leaving after 14 highly successful years at Colfe’s. During that time she has been not only a gifted teacher of Maths but also an outstanding Head of Year. We wish them all well for the future.

A and AS level results will be published on the 14th August, with GCSE results coming through a week later. All the indicators suggest that this will be a good year and I look forward to reporting in more detail when the results have reached us. I am confident that we will have much to celebrate. When we return in September all work on the pre-prep expansion will be complete and the Sixth Form Centre will be well under way.
I wish you all well for the summer and look forward to seeing you again at the start of next term.

Dear Parents
As we approach half term, we have much to celebrate. The building work in the senior school is proceeding swiftly, efficiently and, (tempting fate,) on budget. Pre-prep pupils are enjoying their outstanding new premises and we look forward to the official opening in December.

This week’s intellectual high point was the inaugural meeting of our new scholars’ forum, the John Glyn Society. Taking its name from the original Founder of the school, (John Glyn was Abraham Colfe’s predecessor as Vicar of St Mary’s Lewisham during the reign of Henry VIII,) the society is pupil-led, under the expert guidance of Miss Henderson, Head of Philosophy and Religion. The guest speaker was Michael Binyon OBE, renowned journalist and Pastmaster of the Leathersellers’ Company. He spoke brilliantly (and without notes) about the highlights of his life as a journalist, including meetings with Russian leaders ranging from Brezhnev to Putin and the collapse of the Berlin Wall. I was impressed with the quality of the questions which followed and we look forward to the next meeting. Future speakers include A C Grayling, founder and Master of the New College of the Humanities in London.

Our biennial Going Dutch event last week was an opportunity for representatives from some of the best universities in Europe to address pupils who may be looking beyond the UK for Higher Education. The conference was also attended by higher education advisers from other schools, including Westminster, Charterhouse, Sevenoaks and Marlborough. This exciting (and significantly less expensive) alternative to study in the UK has much to commend it: teaching in English, small seminar groups and interaction with a genuinely international and cosmopolitan student population, amongst other things. 

Blackheath Rugby Club provided the venue for the U15 Cup game against Eltham College on Wednesday evening, under floodlights. The game was well attended by parents on both sides despite driving rain and I was delighted to see us win an emphatic victory, 19-5. The final try, scored by Evan McDonald, involved kicking the ball along the ground from the half way line to the touch-down. Such footwork would have been welcome the previous week when the boys in the same year group lost 6-1 to Eton in the independent schools football competition. We hope that the half-term tour to Portugal will yield better football results. 

Cross Country runners put in sterling performances in the Greenwich Championships this week, which had over 400 competitors taking part. Colfe’s girls’ teams in Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 all won their respective events. In terms of individual success, Tom Simpson (Year 9) took first place and Benjamin Tynan (year 8) came 2nd. Simone Jensen and Maia Albarosa (both Year 9) also received medals, coming second and third respectively.  In netball, cup triumphs continued with our U19s reaching the Finals of the Kent Schools Netball Tournament after a winning each of their five matches by wide margins.   U13s won 32-5 against Benenden in the first round of the Independent Schools Cup and our Year 6s took Bronze in the Forest U11 Netball tournament whilst our swimmers hosted their first Prep Gala of the year against three other schools, finishing in first place by nearly one hundred points.

All Year Seven pupils have now returned from the Outdoor Pursuits week in the Lake District. As predicted by Major Cherry, my arrival coincided with the first rainfall of the week. The range of activities was a wide as ever and it was particularly rewarding to meet pupils who had just completed their first abseil, an important rite of passage for generations of Colfeians. The Sixth Form geography field trip in Wales was also blessed with abundant rain. It was likewise a great success. Half Term trips will include our annual working party travelling to the Gambia, a French residential trip to Normandy, and a rugby tour to Northern Ireland.

Last night’s House Drama competition involved upwards of 100 senior school pupils. Sixthformers directed lower school actors whose performances were unfailingly hilarious. It was great to see so many parents attending this occasion which is the first major house competition of the year. Meanwhile competitive mathematics got off to a good start with a resounding victory over Bromley High School (44-26) in the Hans Woyda Competition and St Mary’s Lewisham provided a venue for a Colfe’s art display in recent weeks which has won considerable public acclaim. Likewise our singers participated in a charity concert in Southwark Cathedral to raise money for Demelza House, one of our favourite charities.

Individual achievements in recent weeks have included the following: 
•         Old Colfeian, George Ronayne who has won a place on the prestigious one-year MA course at RADA.

•         Equestrian, Georgia Noone, Year 10, who took part in the Wales and West Show in Chepstow, her first major show Jumping Competition as a professional, achieving an impressive eighth place out of over 100 entries.

•         6th Former, Gabriella Jenkins,  who plays in the Junior Trinity Symphony Orchestra and has been invited to play bassoon with the Animate Orchestra at the Albert Hall as part of the Proms.

•         Lukas Uzkalnis  in Year 4 who is currently in Lithuania in the first of a series of dance events which will involve performances this year  in the UK and abroad. 

•         Ruby Blythe in Year 5 who raised over £400 for the Alzheimer’s Society in a four mile ‘memory walk’ at Leeds Castle in remembrance of her grandmother who died of the disease.

•         Accomplished athlete, Tom Simpson, Year 9 who competed in the Bec Cycling Club Hill climb on White Lane in Westerham, coming 6th in the U18 category. 

•         Sophia Clark Year 9 whose gymnastic team (A&V Rhythmic Team) won 3rd place in the junior group category in an international competition at Disneyland, Paris. 

With best wishes for half term
Richard Russell

The directors of CGL wish to consult all Old Colfeians about the next stage of our programme for developing Horn Park, and specifically about the need to provide better facilities for women.

You are probably aware that we have set out our broad guiding strategy, which is to:

• Offer a broader range of activities within the existing facilities of Horn Park
• Ensure that the links between the Colfe’s School and Horn Park are strengthened and Horn Park is recognized as the home of all Colfeians
• Enhance the existing facilities at Horn Park and to develop new ones
• Increase the use of and revenues at Horn Park to help achieve the objectives set out above
• Encourage the increased use of Horn Park by all parts of the local community irrespective of age, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.

We are also very much aware that around half the school-leavers from Colfe’s are now girls, and that the opportunities for them to participate in sport here are at present strictly limited.

Against that background, we regard the provision of greater sporting facilities and opportunities for women as a priority, which supports all five of our strategic objectives. Once we are able to reach a consensus, we will then aim to make application to Awarding Bodies to help with the development of the facilities here.  We have already identified netball and tennis as possible additions to our facilities, though we could only proceed with them if we could find people prepared to organize and run them.

In formulating our plans for how to achieve a real improvement in female participation, we will consult with all our partners and stake holders, including the sports clubs, the School and The Leathersellers, PAFA, the Old Colfeian Society and the local community.

We would particularly like to hear from each of the agreed stake holders about:

• What contribution you may be able to offer by exploring the possibility of starting a women’s team (or teams) within your club
• What other activities and sporting facilities we should consider, beyond our present offer, that might help to attract women wanting to play sport
• Whether there are other improvements we should be considering in our social facilities and activities that would encourage a wider female participation at Horn Park generally
• Any other suggestions or ideas that you may want to put to us regarding this objective.

I am hoping that this will form a major part of the next OCS Committee meeting on November 4^th, prior to the AGM on 17^th November when the findings can be shared with members.

CGL want to begin our work on this initiative as soon as possible. Could I therefore ask you to let me have your initial responses by email to the points above by 21^st October?

In carrying forward the work, we will invite a representative from each of the stake holders to join a consultative group, so that we have as wide a continuing input as possible and a way of keeping in close touch with our users as our thinking develops. That representative in this circumstance will be from the Old Colfeian Society Committee who will represent the views of Old Colfeians.

Thank you very much for your assistance in this important project.

Regards,

Vernon Leese

Club Secretary – vernon@hornpark.co.uk

A new Community Choir, based at Horn Park, formerly the Old Colfeians’ Club, has been set up in the last few weeks aimed at those who enjoy singing but may not have any experience with choirs or performing. 

Colfe’s Drama Teacher, Richard Gregg, who is organising this new venture, hopes that it will encourage many more people to take up singing and complement the successful choirs that Colfe’s already runs in school. 

Richard said “I’m very pleased with the level of interest so far but there is always room for more.  We hope that parents and other relatives will come along and join members of the community and just ‘give it a go’. There is no requirement to read music or to have any previous experience.

“We are working on a range of music from show tunes to pop and gospel, so hopefully there is something for everyone.  This is open to everyone, not restricted to Horn Park members or Colfe’s parents. There is a small charge of £3 per session which includes your coffee/tea!   The Colfe’s ‘family’ has always been very much rooted in the community and this is a great chance to be part of something progressive and fun.”

The Choir will meet on a Wednesday evening from 7.45pm. Anyone wishing to join please contact rgregg@colfes.com

Membership of the Old Colfeian Society comprises ALL former pupils over the age of 16 and all current and former staff of Colfe's. 

If you have an opinion on the activities of the Old Colfeian Society, then now is your chance to have your say and get involved!  Apologies to the Secretary. 

This year's OCS AGM takes place on Tuesday 18 November at Horn Park - The Home of Colfeians in the Ernie Reed Lounge (back bar) from 19.45hrs. 

Click here to download the Agenda

Click here to download the minutes from the 2013 AGM

Click here to download the Constitution of the Old Colfeian Society

Dear Parents

Last Thursday Colfe’s was announced as the winner of Education Initiative of the Year in the Independent School Awards 2014 for its work with the Tougher Minds Programme.  This is real and welcome acknowledgement of our unique project, and I congratulate everyone – staff, pupils, parents and the Tougher Minds team – who has contributed to this initiative.  Our next step will be to embed the approach in the learning culture of the school and to share it with our partner schools in the state sector.

2014 is the anniversary of many wars, and Colfeians have served in all of them.  Last week our community joined together in remembrance of those killed in the two World Wars and other conflicts and to think of Colfeians who are currently members of the armed forces.  Thank you to the many people who joined us for Remembrance Sunday at the Old Colfeians’ War Memorial.  This year our youngest pupils in the Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School held their own special ceremonies.  They sowed poppy seeds, and the flowers will remind future generations of pupils about the Colfeians who fell in WW1.

During the half-term break, study trips included a football tour to Portugal, a rugby tour to Northern Ireland and a ‘total immersion’ week in Normandy for Year 8 and 9 linguists, which combined outdoor pursuits and non-stop exposure to the French language.  Also at half term staff and pupils took part in our annual working party trip to help develop Kotu School in the Gambia.  This year, Dr Thompson retires from his founding role as the Director of the Gambia Project, and I know I speak for everyone in the school in thanking Robert for his tireless work over the last decade, leading this highly successful programme.

I have been delighted to receive enthusiastic praise and feedback from prospective parents who came to our last Open Days of the autumn term in both the Prep and Senor School.  Feedback on the day for all our pupil helpers was universally positive, and every aspect of the event on 8 November was commended in an anonymous ‘mystery shopper’ report which we commissioned.  Registrations for entry in 2015 are well ahead of last year, with the Reception year group already full. We have more than twice as many applicants for entry to the Sixth form, and 11+ registrations are already above 200. I am extremely grateful to all academic and support staff who work so hard and to the hundreds of pupils who conducted themselves so well and were a genuine and positive reflection on the school

High-profile event events last week included our lecture on Managing Teenagers, held as part of our ongoing PSHEE programme, which more than 250 parents attended.  And our architects BHM took a group of sixth formers who are interested in careers in architecture and engineering on a tour of the new Sixth Form Centre site, where they learned about the realities of construction.

The Prep School took part in two highly successful ‘focus weeks’, in History and Maths.  The focus on  Maths has certainly followed through to the success of our competitive mathematicians in the Senior School, who last week got through to the third round of the prestigious Hans Woyda competition after beating St Dunstan’s and Bromley High.

In Music, our Year 6 pupils enjoyed a participation concert with the London Symphony Orchestra and our Senior School musicians held another well received platform concert; both events illustrating that there is nothing quite like the experience of performing live music. The next musical events on the horizon include the senior school Winter Concert (25th November) and the annual Carol Service in St Mary’s Lewisham on the 10th December.

We continue to excel in Sport.  Our U15 netballers are now Bromley Schools Champions after convincingly beating Haberdashers' Aske's Knights Academy of Bromley 5-2, and our U19s are through to the finals of the Kent Schools Netball Tournament after winning every one of their five matches by wide margins.  In rugby our U15As are through to the next round of the Kent Cup after beating Chatham and Clarendon Grammar, 22-13 although their successful run in the national Daily Mail competition came to an end last week when they lost to Whitgift in an excellent and closely fought match. Prep School swimmers in Years 5 and 6 took first place in a very close gala against Merton Court and Farrington’s whilst our Year 8 hockey players defeated Blackheath High 11-0.  Finally Colfe’s hosted the second year of the Run-Fast Greenwich and Lewisham Cross Country League: over 150 pupils took part.

Individual achievements in the last few weeks include: 

·         Show jumpers  Luke Wilkes (Year 12) and Shannon Burke (Year 13) qualified first and second for their club in their respective team events seeing them through to the finals  in Hartpury

·         78-year-old Enid Olding, who has been involved with Colfe’s PAFA for nearly 40 years, through her son and now grandsons, took part as the GB flag bearer in the Golden Age Festival in France.

·         Musician Sam Barnett (Year 9) received a new saxophone and sponsorship from the Trevor James company as their first ever ‘Young Artist’.  Sam had a solo set on Sunday  playing at the Regent Street Christmas Lights switch-on.

·         Ella and her brother Louis Richardson in the Prep won a gold and silver medal respectively in the Beckenham Music Festival, for violin (Ella) and double bass (Louis)  Ella was also awarded the prestigious Winifred Handy Trophy.

·         Lukas Uzkalnis (Year 4) danced in an event in front of hundreds of visitors at the British Museum as part of his Lithuanian Dance group.

·         Frank Blythe (Year 8) was the team mascot for  Charlton Football Club in their match against Birmingham last month.

·         Kate Drury (Year 10) had a story (about fellow Colfeian Georgia Noone) published online for the Newshopper as part of the ongoing Young Reporter competition.

·         Maths teacher Dr Umesh Vijapura achieved his Sixth Dan Black Belt in Taekwon-do.

Further details of many of these achievements may be found at http://www.colfes.com/newsarchive and photographs at https://www.flickr.com/photos/79043284@N06/sets/ .

With best wishes

Richard Russell

F|۰��(I=

Graeme (as he preferred to be known) was the son of George Silas and Cecilia Anetta Jordan of Blackheath Rise, Lewisham and joined up in August 1914 as a Private in the 1^st Battalion of the London Scottish. He served in France and was fatally wounded in the head aged 18 as part of what is said to be the first Territorial unit in action in the War at Messines Ridge on 31^st October 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres. Graeme was taken prisoner and died at Aix-la-Chapelle on 20th November 1914. He was originally buried at the Military Cemetery there but later re-interred at Cologne Southern Cemetery (XII.A.7). Nearly half of the London Scottish involved at the action at Messines Ridge were killed, wounded or taken prisoner and such was the loss that the London Scottish decided to erect their Regimental Memorial there.

A former Colfeian who died in 2013 after a long illness, aged only 21, has been honoured by Birmingham City University with a posthumous BSc with Honours in Quantity Surveying.   Christopher Hugill, who always ‘wanted to build’, was awarded the degree on merit based on his work prior to his death. Chris’s ashes were scattered in various places including on the school grounds, where he enjoyed playing football. 

On Facebook his father, Peter, wrote: It is a wonderful Epilogue to a life cut short but a life lived to the full. Grateful thanks to all those Friends and Teaching Staff from Clare House through Colfe’s to BCU and Medical Staff from St Marys Grand Junction CO, The Royal Marsden, The PRU and St Georges Tooting who shared the journey and made it possible. Sadly missed and proudly remembered – he touched many lives. Chris’s Dad

Dear Parents

Last week’s Winter Concert in the senior school was a wonderful occasion, featuring a wide variety of music performed by pupils of all ages. Christmas is always a busy time of year for musicians and we are now looking forward to the annual Carol Service in St Mary’s Church, Lewisham, which takes place next Wednesday. Choirs from the prep and pre-prep will feature on the programme which will follow a traditional format of carols and readings. We recalled the life and times of erstwhile Vicar of St Mary’s, Abraham Colfe, at an event on Thursday evening in the school library whose purpose was to celebrate the 350^th anniversary of the Act of Parliament which Colfe sponsored, and which was eventually made law in 1664, to consolidate the relationship between the school and the Leathersellers’ Company. The Second Warden and the Archivist of the Leathersellers’ Company addressed an audience of staff and Old Colfeians on a subject of considerable fascination.

This term’s major production in the theatre, George Feydeau’s farce, ‘A Flea in her Ear,’ marked a new departure for the Drama department. A cast of pupils in Year 10 and above made light work of a complex plot, expertly directed by Director of Drama, Lucy Atkinson. The result was sophisticated and impressive, as was the stage set, for which many thanks to our lead technician, Richard Gregg. Prep and Pre-prep productions will follow next week in the run-up to Christmas. 

The UCAS season is almost complete and attractive offers are coming through already, including unconditional offers from universities as prestigious as Nottingham. Eight Colfeians will be attending interviews at either Oxford or Cambridge in the course of the next two weeks and we wish them well. Others will have interviews with top medical schools in the near future and we hope to match last year’s success rate when 65% of our U6th won places at Russell Group universities. Support for this year’s cohort has been wide-ranging, including interview practice with Old Colfeians, expertly co-ordinated by Andrew Corstorphine.

On a related point, I would like to take this opportunity to once again invite parents to join our list of contacts offering students a work placement, as part of our successful Year 12 Internship Programme. Last year’s range of options was stronger than ever and we are always looking for new options. Anyone able to offer a placement for up to two weeks, please contact Mrs Burton,  jburton@colfes.com or Mrs Cardnell jcardnell@colfes.com, either of whom will be delighted to hear from you.

Our Debaters have had great success in the prestigious Cambridge Schools Debating Competition, with our teams beating Eltham College and St Dunstan’s to go through to the second round. This is the first year that the school has had two teams go through at once, taking up two of only three spaces available,  with sterling performances from 6^th formers, Shannon Burke, Kal Sevenzo, Joe Andrew, and  Year 11s Daisy Battersby.  We look forward to stiffer competition in the next round.

The official opening of the new Pre-prep and Nursery Building last Monday enabled parents and grandparents to enjoy a tour of the new facilities and a glass of wine with senior members of the Leathersellers’ Company. We were particularly grateful to the Master, Dr Anthony Watson, for his kind words about the recent successes of the school as he officially declared the building open. Work on the Sixth Form centre is ongoing, on budget and on schedule. I am delighted to report that our official School Visitor, Prince Michael of Kent, will perform the opening ceremony in September when he presides at the senior prizegiving.

The Old Colfeians’ Society Dinner took place at the Waldorf in London last Friday, attended by more than 80 ex-pupils of varying vintage who professed themselves delighted with the progress of the school over the last 12 months. They were less happy to note that neither I nor my distinguished predecessor, Dr Vivian Anthony, could remember the words of the second verse of the School Song. It was asserted by the president, Gregory Jones QC., that the reintroduction of the Song in the school itself is overdue. I look forward to discussing how best this might be achieved with Mrs Collin in due course.

The Senior Mathematics Challenge brought out the best in our top mathematicians, with Josh Guyadeen (Best in School) and several other candidates winning gold awards. Meanwhile Computer Scientists, Harry Calder and Tom Whittaker, have just embarked on an ambitious science-based project to launch  a hot air weather balloon into space with a small computer on board, to take photos from the higher atmosphere.  They hope their venture will promote and encourage membership of our senior school Computer Club.  Thanks to our Parents and Friends Association (PAFA) for helping to fund the project.

In  English a record number of Prep School pupils took part in our second Poetry competition, this year on the theme of Remember.  Well done to all those who won especially Polly Chamberlain in year 4 who was judged the overall winner.

In Sport, our senior swimmers did well in a friendly gala against Farringtons, Bullers Wood and Bromley High.  All competitors put in strong performances, particularly our Year 7 and 8 boys who won the Gala despite swimming against Farrington’s boys from Year 9.   The rugby teams won most of the games in the annual fixture against Latymer Upper with wins for our 1st XV, U15 A and U14 A teams.  This was the first fixture where we fielded U12 and U13 C teams, a chance for many of these boys to take part in their first competitive rugby game.   In girls’ sport, U14 Hockey players won 5-0 against Blackheath High and our netballers stayed on top form with wins for the U16As against Priory, U12As against Alleyns, and U14As who performed extremely well in the prestigious Kent Schools Tournament, not forgetting our Year 6 team who beat West Lodge 10-8.

Recent individual achievements have included:

·         Sophia Kirkman in Year 6 who received a trophy for Girls Tristar 1 , Club Champion at the Junior Greenwich Tritons Triathalon Club.

·         Eddy Miles in Year 9 who performed at the School Proms at the Albert Hall.

·         Francesca Rameaux, (Year 8) one of just 40 children in London out of hundreds, to make it into the Charity, Help For Heroes Kids’ Choir.

·         Graham Renfrew and some of the catering team, as well as family and friends, who are close to reaching their fundraising target of £1,500 after walking the roof of the O2

·         Sam Chatterley in Year 13 has been selected to represent GB at the World Scout Jamboree next year.  ,

·         Roz Burton, Year 13 and Daisy Jones, Year 12, who have had their work published online for the Newshopper, as part of  the Young Reporter Competition.

·         Leathersellers’ Poster Competition winners, Peter Higgs,(1^st) Emma Minett (2^nd) and Antonia Sholaja (3^rd).  The winning Poster will be displayed in the Leathersellers’ Court Room.

Richard Russell

Headmaster

A photo taken 50 years ago shows intrepid Colfe’s  pupils taking on the challenge of walking 250 miles along the Pennine Way – their first major adventure for Outdoor Pursuits.  

L to R: Dave Gardner, Adams (6), Reason (7) and Mr Sant (14) [Help us fill in the blanks! - Ed.]

The photo, which was circulated for the first time after the Old Colfeians’ 2014 Reunion Dinner,  shows a group of 18 boys from Colfe’s Grammar School, aged between 16 and 18, getting ready to drive to the Scottish Borders and start a three-week walk to Derbyshire.  The event was captured in an article for the Kentish Mercury on 21st August 1964.

Head of Games at the time, Mr David Gardner, who retired in 2002, said “This photo was sent to me by one of the lads and is special to me as it was the group I took on my first major trip for Outdoor Pursuits  which didn’t become an official programme until the 1980s when we were independent.
“The trip from Kirk Yetholm, on the Scottish Borders, 'downhill' to Edale in Derbyshire, was a  major challenge for city grammar school lads, many of whom had not been much outside London in those days.  

“The walking group consisted of two other teachers, one of whom, Colin Winter, is now in his nineties.  We walked 15 miles a day, carrying rucksacks and mainly camping and cooking our own food.  The boys were very intrepid – I remember waking up and looking out of the tent to find thick frosts on the ground in mid August – but mainly  we managed almost three weeks in the mountains without a single drop of rain and in constant sunshine. 

“The boys who took part still talk about it, so I know they must have enjoyed it and gained much from the experience.”

Peter Adams was 16 at the time and finishing his last year at Colfe’s.  The 66 year old remembers it was a great experience “The walk has stayed with me as one of the highlights of my life. During the walk we had a competition to see who could survive the longest without a blister; I had treated my feet with surgical spirit and won as I had no blisters! Since Colfe’s I have had a very varied life and I can definitely put my incredible and exiting life journey down, in no small part,  to my experiences and time at the school.”