The public examination season is now well under way and pupils in Year 11 and above seem to be taking things in their stride. Upper 6th students have enjoyed their last official day in school today, indulging in a traditional regression to childhood which will involve, amongst other things, an ice cream van, a tug-of-war and a bouncy castle. These pupils have been a delight to teach throughout their time in the Sixth Form and they all have a lot to look forward to, in some cases after 15 years at Colfe’s. As previously reported, we have every confidence they will progress to highly competitive courses at the best universities. The outcome of the tug-of-war (pupils against staff) will be reported in a future newsletter. 

After half-term all year groups in the Senior School will be engaged in exams. This is an important milestone in the school year and I hope that all pupils in Year 10 and below will find time to do some serious revision over the half term break. The “little and often” principle is by far the most effective method, supported by a healthy diet and regular exercise. 

Highlights of the second half of term will include the Fine Art and Graphics Exhibition which takes place in the Art department from 3.45 until 7.00 on 9 June. Outstanding creative pieces produced by pupils in Year 11 and above will be on show, with sixth form students on hand to talk and answer questions about their work. All are invited. 

Last week’s junior school Open Morning was hugely popular with over 150 prospective parents attending.  Places for September are now at capacity and registrations for future years are reaching us in record numbers. My thanks, as ever, to Mrs Redman and Mrs Marsh for welcoming so many visitors to the school. Prep school tour guides were as impressive as ever. 

The Summer Platform Concert last week was an opportunity to say farewell to many of our U6th musicians who will be leaving Colfe’s at the end of this term. It was a highly successful occasion with a wonderful range of music, expertly directed by Mrs Bond and her colleagues. This was followed by an equally well-received tea-time concert in the prep school yesterday afternoon. Thanks to Mrs Watts who organized our younger pupils and guided them through a much appreciated programme of items. 

Year 7 and 8 mathematicians have accumulated nearly 60 certificates in the national Junior Maths Challenge organised by the UK Mathematical Trust.  Well done especially to Gold Certificate winner Lukas Jacobs in Year 7 whose score was sufficiently high to qualify for the prestigious (and accordingly difficult) Junior Kangaroo paper which takes place on 14th June. 

Other events throughout the school have included study trips for Year 6 who visited Christ Church in Erith and Year 5 who went to Epping Forest as part of their studies in RS and Geography. Year 1 took a trip to the Enchanted Forest at Groombridge Place near Tunbridge Wells continuing their scientific study of plants and trees.  Reception pupils had (among many highlights) a talk on the historical timeline of teddy bears during a visit to the V&A Museum of Childhood, an early introduction to the concept of history whilst Pre-Prep and Nursery pupils enjoyed an assembly on healthy eating organised by our Catering Manager, Graham Renfrew. Nursery pupils were entertained by ‘Safari Pete’ accompanied by various animals including meerkats and a baby crocodile with an appetite for mice. 

Nine pupils in Years 7 and 8 took part in the London CWIZZ book quiz against schools from across South London.  This is the third time Colfe’s has taken part in this event in which pupils test their knowledge and meet local authors. Congratulations to all pupils who won prizes including a visit to the school from the author and comedian Mo O’Hara. 

Colfe’s athletes performed very well in the London round of the English Schools Athletics Championships.  Year 10 pupils excelled, with Tom Simpson winning the 1500m, Gabriel Foley the 800m and Ololade Fakoya who won the shot put.

Boys’ and girls’ cricket teams have started the season with conspicuous success.  In girls cricket we have hosted two successful Cricket Festivals, both of which we won.  In Year 8 our U12 Gold team defeated Bromley High (by 22 runs) and Blackheath High (by 35 runs) and our U13As were victorious at the expense of Chislehurst School for Girls, Blackheath High and Bexley Academy.  Every Year 7 boy took part in a block fixture against St Dunstan’s and today they are all out in force again – this time against Alleyn’s. As ever, the 1st X1 players have had to combine cricket with public examinations but the team is performing well with an emphatic victory over St Dunstan’s on Wednesday. Meanwhile U13 A and B teams defeated City of London in the quarter final of the London Schools’ Cup and the U15 As defeated Kings Canterbury. Lower down the school, the U9s won two matches against Blackheath Prep and our Year 3 C team triumphed over Bickley Park. 

In swimming, Colfe’s hosted our last Year 5 and 6 Gala of the term against Merton Court and Coopers Lane.  Our Gold team finished in first place with outstanding performances from all those taking part, a fitting end to highly successful season of prep school swimming. 

Luca Thurlow (Year 6) is currently in Columbia for the Word BMX finals – we all wish him the best of luck. 

Other individual achievements include:

• Rose Turpin (Year 12) who achieved the top mark of Distinction in her Advanced 1 Tap, Intermediate Modern and Grade 7 Ballet Dance Exams and Grade 8 LAMDA solo musical theatre exams where she achieved an outstanding 95/100 for singing and 94/100 for Acting.  These give her UCAS points and are the equivalent of 2 A* at A level.
• Georga Halloumas (Year 10) who won gold at the London Judo Open. This means Georga is currently ranked 4th in the UK.  This is the first year that Georga has competed in the cadet category which includes girls born between 1999 and 2001.
• Lucy Still (Year 12) who has been invited to be on the Youth Forum at the National Portrait Gallery. The Forum works to engage young people in Art.
• Horse Show Jumper, Luke Wilkes (Year 13) who has qualified for the prestigious Hickstead Horse Show in July.
• Gymnast Sophia Clark (Year 10) who successfully competed in the Zone Grades Tournament in Canterbury and qualified to National Level in the junior category.  Sophia will be competing at the National Final Grades in Birmingham and the International Rhythmic London Spring Cup 2016 in June
• Teachers Naomi Herbert and Jill Li Sue are taking part in a parachute Jump in Headcorn to raise money for the Charity Edith Cavell during half-term.  https://www.justgiving.com/Naomi-Jill-Skydive 

Best wishes to all and particularly to Mrs Sarah Marsh who is leaving Colfe’s today after three highly successful years as Head of the Prep School. The popularity of the school and the many achievements of her pupils, many of which are celebrated in these newsletters throughout the year, derive from her untiring commitment to the Prep School and we wish her well for the future.

The final fortnight of the term has been an opportunity to acknowledge, celebrate and reward a huge range of achievement throughout the school.  Prep School and Lower School Prize Giving Ceremonies last week took place against the backdrop of the Prep School Art Exhibition which transformed the sports hall. Our thanks to Mrs Higgs and her colleagues who have been preparing for the display for much of this academic year.

The Prep School ceremony was also an opportunity to say goodbye to Miss Denise Lempriere who is retiring after 33 years of truly dedicated service to the Prep School. Universally popular and respected by pupils and parents alike, Miss Lempriere has been the guiding force behind the prep school for most of the period of its existence. She leaves with our best wishes for a long and enjoyable retirement. 

We also say farewell to Mrs Sarah Redman at the end of this term whose conspicuously successful career as Head of the Pre-Prep and Nursery has seen the significant expansion of that section of the school. Her leadership has generated a succession of outstanding inspection reports for the PPN and we will miss her enormously when she moves on to the new challenge of a consultancy role this summer.

Colleagues departing the senior school at the end of this year include Mr Andrew Corstorphine and Miss Louise Lechmere. Both move on to senior roles in other independent schools next autumn and will be greatly missed. Mr Jonathan Chuter will also be departing, with a view to spending more time with his young family, having revived the fortunes of the RS and Philosophy department in the course of the last six years.

Year 7 pupils were amongst the first to visit the all new Leathersellers’ Hall in Bishopsgate last week. They had an opportunity to see first-hand the Will of Abraham Colfe, having been welcomed to the Hall by the Master and Wardens. Their day continued with a visit to the Guildhall and the Bank of England Museum where they saw, inter alia, a gold nugget which was worth £400,000- probably more than that post-Brexit.

On the subject of Brexit we were delighted to hear that senior civil servant and Old Colfeian Oliver Robbins had been appointed as Permanent Secretary to lead the new EU unit in the Cabinet Office.  This is a highly important role which will support the Cabinet as it considers options for our future relationship outside the EU with Europe and the rest of the world.  Oliver will move across from his current role as Second Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. His distinguished career to date was recognized in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list last year when he was made a Companion of the Bath for services to national security. 

And finally, still on the subject of Brexit, one of our Year 11 pupils was present, in the course of her current work experience, in the room in which Boris Johnson announced last week that he would not be contesting the leadership of the Conservative Party. We remain grateful to all parents and Old Colfeians who continue to offer exciting and rewarding work experience placements.

The wet weather mainly held off for the CCF’s (Combined Cadet Force) annual Parade Day last weekend.  We welcomed back former Colfeian Lieutenant Colonel Jo Butterfill MC, Commanding Officer of the First Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers as the day’s Reviewing Officer. Lieutenant Colonel Butterfill was both a cadet and an officer in the CCF during his time with us and was extremely impressed with our current cadets. Many thanks to Garry Hooton, Commanding Officer for the first time this year, for the meticulous preparation which preceded the event.

Our cadets will be setting off tomorrow for their DofE Bronze expeditions in the Lenham area in Kent. Later this month, Gold Practice and Gold qualifiers head for Snowdonia. All Colfe’s expeditions are carefully planned and supervised by experienced mountain leaders and each team carries a tracking device which enables us to pinpoint their exact location at any point in time.

Literary and cultural highlights of the final weeks of term have included the Senior School House Poetry competition and the House Music competition. I was also delighted to hear that Mr (Joel) Smith has received a total of 30 applications for the Henry Williamson essay competition. Henry Williamson, best known for his best-selling Tarka The Otter, is an Old Colfeian who, despite his espousal of fascism in the 1930s, remains one of the most distinguished novelists of the 20th century. His Chronicle of Ancient Sunshine sequence of novels is set in and around Lewisham in the early years of the last century.

The Year 6 musical Alice in Wonderland was an ambitious project and a wonderfully successful night – thanks to Victoria Welch, Head of Key Stage 2 elect, for her expert direction and to all the parent volunteers who produced the most magnificent set, costumes and makeup on the night. Thanks also to Ruth Hall for the fantastic Pre-prep and Nursery production last week. 

It has been another record year for the number of pupils (over 100) taking part in LAMDA exams (London Academy of  Music and Dramatic Art)  with, for the first time, three performance evenings (two senior, one prep) which enabled us to demonstrate the strength and depth of Drama across the school.  50 new joiners have already signed up for lessons in September. Others who wish to enrol should contact Richard Gregg by email: rgregg@colfes.com
The Year 5 debating competition involved more than 10 local schools with entries of the highest quality. Expertly managed by Mr Dunsmore, more than 40 pupils debated the merits of technology, amongst other things, with one of the two Colfe’s teams emerging victorious. Congratulations to Ines Robinson and Alfie Bracken.

High profile events of the last two weeks have included the Sixth Form Leavers’ Ball held at the Greenwich Yacht Club and a reception in school for the parents of Sixth Form Leavers. Both were enjoyable occasions which gave cause to reflect on what an impressive group of pupils we have had at the top of the school this year. I am particularly grateful to Mr Drury and Mr Foxall for guiding them through the last two years and delighted that they have been the first cohort to occupy the new Stewart Building which has so successfully transformed the physical heart of the school. Looking to the future, I am delighted to report the appointment of Sophia Rosen Fouladi and David Battersby as the new School Captains.

Despite the persistence of the Jet Stream, all three sports days were successfully completed in the closing weeks of term. New school records were set at Sutcliffe Park: Teya Adedeji, U12 girls’ discus, Aliyah Robinson, U14 200m, and Benjamin Tynan who set a new record in the 300m.  Also in athletics, Denny Ashison, William White, Ronald Aduaye-Odiete, Nia Southworth and Christian Hooper have all been selected to represent Greenwich in the London Schools’ Championships. Twenty-four of our talented Prep athletes took part in the senior event. Prior to Sports Day, more than 400 parents and guests had attended the Sports Presentation Evening on the 22nd June which was preceded by a barbecue in the main school quad. 

Over 60 girls and boys (Years 7-10) took part in the Greenwich Schools Athletics Championships against schools across the borough.  Well done to all those who took part especially the Year 10 boys who won the event with gold medals for James Back-Wilkins (100m), Gabriel Foley (800m) Tom Simpson (1500m), Luke Okosieme (High Jump), Ololade Fakoya (Shot Put), Matthew Walker (Javelin).  James, Luke, Ololade and Nathaniel St Louis-Mason won the 4x100m relay.

The total raised within the school for charity has now topped the £25K mark for this year, making it one of our most successful years ever. The Leathersellers’ Charities Committee have contributed significantly to the total through their match-funding arrangement.

There have been many outstanding individual achievements from across the school community this year and fittingly in the last few weeks these now include:

• Horse Rider Jasmine Shaw (Year 6) won 1st prize in the Dressage Intro B competition at Chelsfield Equestrian Centre on her pony Joey.
• Luca Thurlow in Year 6 who won the Year 7 Runner of the Year Award for his outstanding performances this year.  Luca qualified for the World BMX Championships for a third time running this year although he unfortunately broke his leg whilst training in Columbia.  We all wish him a speedy recovery.
• Barnaby Marchant (Year 8) won a Bronze Medal in sailing at the London Youth Games - RS Feva Class - represented the London Borough of Bromley and Colfe’s.
• Year 5 swimmers, Zachary Kirkman and Jacob Walker who were selected to swim in the London Mini Games held at Crystal Palace representing the boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich respectively.
• Anna Hadingham (Year 7) has been selected to represent London at the British Triathlon Inter-Regional Championships in Glasgow at the beginning of September. Sophia Kirkman (Year 7) was selected as the reserve. The fact that two of our pupils have been selected is particularly impressive because only three children are selected in each age group from across the whole of London.
• Louise Wright (Year 12) who opened the 100 year memorial ceremony (representing the next generation) at the Somme battlefields. Louise took part in the service at the Lochnagar Crater where her great-great-grandfather died at the age of 25 on the 1st July 1916. http://www.lochnagarcrater.org
• Dan Kelly and Arthur Drury (Year 9) who were invited to the Royal Institute of Mathematics for a day of lectures after strong performance in the national Maths Challenge. Dan and Arthur came second in the Institute lunchtime competition out of around 100 teams from schools across the country - both were awarded prizes of Maths books.
• Evan Olding (Year 6) filmed in Camber Sands for the Discovery Science TV series called ‘What is Earth’.  Evan played a child in the USA who was swallowed by sand.

Colfe’s graduates, Emily Ireland, Amy Grant and Octavia Willoughby spent their summer together raising over £4,000 for charity by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.The intrepid trio climbed 5,895m over eight days (six days going up and two going down again) to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust, Freedom from Fistula and the British Lung Foundation.

Firm friends Octavia, Amy and Emily are now studying at university: History at UCL (Octavia) and Medicine at Leeds and Cardiff (Amy and Emily respectively). Emily said, “It was an amazing experience which was made even better being able to do it with the friends I have spent so much time with over the years, especially through netball.  It was lovely to be able to share something like this with them.  A lot of planning and fundraising for our respective charities helped make us all the more determined to get to the summit.

“The first four days of climbing went pretty well but then we had the summit night – where we walked through the night (around six and a half hours) so that we arrived at the summit in time to watch the sunrise – a view that made it all worthwhile and only slightly overshadowed by the cold (it was -20 degrees and you couldn’t feel your toes!)  “Our knees ached very badly and the altitude at the top really scrambled your brain – I looked at my watch and just couldn’t think what the time was - but this was one of the best things I’ve done to date and we raised more money than our targets for our charities.“I’m now considering taking on Machu Picchu next… so watch this space.”

As we approach the end of a very busy half term I am delighted to report a wealth of achievements from both Junior and Senior pupils, as well as general updates and activity throughout the school.
This half term has seen the start of our open season for prospective parents and I would like to take the opportunity to thank the many pupils – Junior and Senior – who have acted as tour guides during these events; their commitment (during weekends and evenings) and sheer enthusiasm for Colfe’s has helped to make the sessions some of our most successful to date. 

Junior School
It has been a busy time for our younger pupils this half term including a seasonal Harvest Festival celebration full of songs, poetry and readings – all food generously donated was given to the Salvation Army.
Pupils, teachers and parents from nursery to Year 6 spent a week dedicated to sharing the school’s values of Effort, Honesty, Team, Love of Learning, Happiness, Respect and Resilience.  Working across the curriculum, pupils had the opportunity to partner with children from different key stages to create displays of their work.  Parents were also encouraged to join in by leaving a written message each day on how the values were being used at home. Thanks to PSE (Personal Social Education) subject leader Sarah Walsh for coordinating the event.

Junior School pupils held a celebration of poetry last week – Early Years and Key Stage 1 classes learned a poem at home and presented to their classmates and teachers, while Key Stage 2 took part in our annual poetry writing competition (now in its fourth year) with the theme ‘Messages’. Pupils also had a chance to take part in workshops run by children’s author and poet, Andrew Weale. The winners will be announced after half term.

Music
The Senior School has hosted its first Platform Concert of the year, for Years 7 – 13, with performances from soloists and group ensembles including the Chamber Singers. Earlier this week the Jazz Concert featured a wonderful range of vocal and instrumental performances whilst the Junior School Tea Time Concert featured younger pupils who have recently begun playing a musical instrument as well as our more experienced players.

The popularity of choral singing across the school is growing. This April will see our first concert tour for choral singers to Tuscany (Years 7-13) and will include a chance to visit Florence, Pisa and Siena as well as the opportunity to perform three concerts.  And Colfe’s Combined Choir (which brings together students, staff and parents) is currently in rehearsals for its forthcoming performance of Karl Jenkin’s The Armed Man on November 21 at St Alfege in Greenwich. 
For more information on the Tuscany trip and for tickets to the St Alfege concert, please contact Emma Bond, Director of Music ebond@colfes.com  
ArtArtists from across the school have been on a number of external trips this half term.  A-level Fine Art and Graphic Communication students spent a weekend in Margate exploring concepts of circular shapes in art, fashion and architecture and also visited Roche Court in Dorset to view a collection of contemporary sculptures. Year 10 pupils visited Tate Britain to practice the reading and analysis of art work and Year 4 visited Tate Modern for the Georgia O Keefe exhibition supporting their classroom work on leaves, flowers and landscapes.  

PsychologyA-level Psychologists have taken part in Colfe’s first ‘Brain Day’ with a series of university-style lectures designed to go beyond the A-level syllabus. Sixth Form students learnt about new technologies that could eventually be used to read and manipulate thoughts remotely, as well as researching schizophrenia from a neurological perspective. Thanks to Dr Guy Sutton from the University of Nottingham Medical School for delivering the lectures and to Dr Lea (Head of Psychology) for organising the day.

Mathematics
Colfe’s strength in competitive mathematics continues with an emphatic win (36 points to 27) against Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College in round one of the prestigious Hans Woyda competition this week.  This was an outstanding start to the season and the team – Emma Williams (Year 13), Simone Korsgaard-Jensen (Year 11), Panos Philalithis (Year 9) and Ryan Smith (Year 9) – are all to be congratulated. Thanks, as ever, to Dr Vijapura for his constant support in this area.

Careers
Senior pupils have begun taking part in the school careers programme with Year 11 receiving one-to-one sessions following their psychometric profiling at the end of last term. Students have embraced these experiences, helping them not only with future career planning but in the focus of working hard to achieve their academic goals. The first UCAS applications are ready to submit for those applying to Oxbridge, Music Conservatoires and Drama school – all of which have early deadlines. 

School Trips
Plenty of study trips have taken place across the school already with more to come over the coming weeks. Year 12 politics students had a trip to Parliament, Year 9 mathematicians to Bletchley Park and Reception pupils took part in their first music trip to London for a production from the popular Sir Scallwag series at the Wigmore Hall. 

The second of our Year 7 groups return today from their Outdoor Pursuits week in the Lake District. Good weather has prevailed for both weeks, which makes this year group the most fortunate on record. I was accordingly delighted to escape from the HMC Conference in Stratford last week to join the pupils for part of their hill walk on Thursday.  The range of activities was as wide as ever and thank you to Major Cherry for his organisation of the Outdoor Education programme. CCF Cadets leave tonight for five days to Wattisham in Suffolk and A-level Art and Drama pupils set off this weekend for the popular study trip to New York over the half-term break.

Sport
In rugby there were block fixtures against Brentwood – in which every boy in Year 7 had a chance to play – and Sutton Valance, and in Rugby League our U16s are through to the regional rounds of the Champions Schools Trophy. Well done to Chris Harris (Year 12) who has been selected to represents Kent U18s. Year 3 rugby players also had their first competitive game against Bickley Park School – a great introduction to tag rugby with almost the whole year group taking part. Old Colfeian Matt Gallagher made his senior starting debut for Saracens in a recent premiership fixture.

Junior School netballers started the season with success at the Colfe’s U9 netball tournament – the A team topped the table winning all their matches against teams from Farringtons, Breaside, Babington House and Merton Court. And teams from Years 7, 8 and 9 put in a strong performance in the Condover Hall Competition in Shropshire where the 8As won the plate tournament after victories in the majority of their matches.  

In swimming, we hosted the first Junior School gala of the year for pupils in Years 4, 5 and 6 against Oakfield, Farringtons, Breaside and Merton Court.  Colfe’s team secured first place positioning – well done to everyone who took part with special mention to Leo Walker, Alex Edwards, Noemie Klanga, Grace Turner and Gabriella Noyce (all Year 4) who swam above their age group for the Year 5 relay.

Other individual achievements this half term have included:

• Nathan Chapman (Year 7) represented Colfe’s at a biathlon (1600m run and 100m swim) in Ascot, coming third in his age group;
• Brothers Jacob and Leo Walker (Year 6 and Year 4 respectively) performed strongly in the recent Greenwich Borough Swimming Championships with Leo coming first in freestyle and second in backstroke, and Jacob placing second in backstroke;
• Tyler Smith (Year 9) was presented with a Jack Petchey Achievement Award at the London South East Scout Awards in recognition of taking 16 badges and creating his own website;
• Sophia Clark (Year 11 ) won a gold medal and two silver medals in the International Rhythmic Gymnastics competition ‘Dilyana Prima’ in Bulgaria;
• Showjumper Georgia Noone (Year 12) took part in an end of season show at Chepstow with her horse Clifford – wining in one class and coming seventh in another against over 90 professional competitors;
• Luca Thurlow (Year 7) has been selected to represent Great Britain at both the World and European BMX Championships 2017.

Parent Communications
At the beginning of this term we were delighted to welcome our new Director of Communications. Kate Bridgman has joined us from Dulwich College where she was Marketing Manager with previous senior marketing positions held at Channel 4 and the BBC. Kate’s role will be to manage all marketing communications across the Junior and Senior Schools, including communications to parents which will be an area of immediate focus for her – comments and feedback are welcome kbridgman@colfes.com. Please join me in welcoming Kate to Colfe’s. 

Building Works

Finally, I am delighted to say that the landscaping and building work at the Senior School entrance is almost complete and should be fully operational by our return to school after half term. Thank you for your patience during the works.
I wish all pupils a restful break and I look forward to seeing you when we return on 31 October.