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 6th 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 16th 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 5th 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