Welcome to the first ebulletin of a distinctly soggy summer term. Exam candidates in Year 11 and above are now on the home stretch, putting the finishing touches to their preparations for the all-important GCSE and A level exams. I’m grateful to many of my colleagues who put on extra revision sessions during the holiday and everybody involved seems to be doing all that they can to guarantee good news in August.
A lot also happened in terms of school trips during the Easter break. The Rome Classics trip included not only the familiar sites in the urbs aeterna, but also trips out to Hadrian’s Villa and the spectacular gardens at Tivoli. Plans are already under way for a visit to Asia Minor next autumn. The Geography students’ trip to Barcelona was also a great success with visits to many of the city’s attractions including the impressive garden complex designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi.
Easter also proved a good time for our avid book lovers to start reading the eight Carnegie shortlist books for our eleventh year shadowing this major event and I look forward to seeing if they agree with the judges’ final decision in June.
I was very impressed with the joint effort of staff and pupils in the musical grade one-a-thon. Across the school people were learning a new instrument and, at the end of last term, taking the grade one exam to raise money for charity. This momentous effort highlighted versatility, if not universal virtuosity, with everyone achieving a pass grade. Alex in year 7, already a very accomplished musician, is particularly worth mentioning as she gained almost perfect marks with 145 out of 150 in her viola exam, for which she was awarded a distinction. Congratulations to everyone who took part and especially well done for the hundreds of pounds generated by the event.
Colfe’s can be rightly proud of our strong community and this was once again proved by the heartwarming efforts of the Crawford family who used their Easter break to help build a much needed house in Morocco for charity. Debbie, Emmett (year 5) and Oliver (year 8) learned some invaluable lessons and it was wonderful for them to be able to come back and tell us of their experiences in a prep school assembly. Thanks to all the Colfeian parents who donated clothes for the charity.
We have continued our excellence in sport particularly this term in swimming with a number of galas in both the senior and prep schools. Well done to our swimmers who performed exceptionally well in the County Aquathlon Relay competition. The swimmers recorded the fastest time for a mixed team, and the runners won their race, earning them all gold medals. They have now qualified for the national competition which will take place in June. Tom Chapman has retained his place in the England U18 rugby team and played an important part in Spain over Easter when the England team won all their matches and defeated Ireland in the final. Further detail can be found on the RFU website. Tom is currently training with London Wasps.
A quick note of congratulations to Bhavini Viajapura in Year 10 who achieved a Certificate of Merit in the Prestigious Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad. Bhavini was asked to sit the Hamilton paper after gaining a Gold Certificate in the maths Challenge earlier in the year.
Finally I am really looking forward to the book launch next week of the history of Colfe’s written by one of my predecessors, Dr Vivian Anthony. It is a remarkable book which chronicles a very important time in Colfeian history.
Richard Russell
Headmaster
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Summer Term School News
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