and a Resident House Assistant at Bishop’s Stortford College, has been selected to play for the Wales Senior Netball Team.

After a rigorous selection process which assessed Celyn’s stamina and skill over an intense 5-day trial in December, she was selected as one of 26 players (narrowed down from 95) to represent Wales in their upcoming test matches. Made up of players ranging from 17-34 years old, the squad, which has just improved its International Netball Federation ranking to 9th in the world, is currently training for a year of international netball, including qualification for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Commenting on the new squad, Rachel Bayley, Welsh Netball’s Head of Performance said, “I would like to congratulate all of the athletes who have been selected for the 2020 Wales senior squad and thank everyone who participated in the trials process. The coming season will see preparations towards the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2023 World Cup escalate and I know that after such a successful 2019, this new group of athletes will be hungry to compete on court and continue our excellent run of form.”

Celyn’s passion for netball started at the age of 8 during her time at primary school before she progressed to playing for a local club in Wales. She now plays for the Hertfordshire Hornets and has been training with the Wales squad at the Sport Wales Centre in Cardiff since the beginning of the 2019 netball season in October. Celyn will play in the positions of Wing Attack and Centre, with Wing Attack being her preferred choice.

On hearing of her success Celyn said, “I was delighted to be selected to represent my country, it is an honour to be a part of such a talented squad. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to progress as a player and to come up against some of the best teams in the world. I look forward to furthering my netball career after this and my long-term goal has always been to make it to the Commonwealth Games.”

Having been selected in the final 15, Celyn’s first matches of the test series will be against New Zealand and South Africa on Thursday and Friday this week in Nottingham. Celyn commented, “I know both games are going to be extremely tough and will challenge me massively but it’s an amazing opportunity to play against two of the best teams in the world.”

The College wishes Celyn and the rest of the Welsh Senior Netball Team the very best of luck in their forthcoming matches and netball season. The College looks forward to Celyn inspiring a whole new generation of netballers.

Harriet H, has won the 2020 Specialist Crafts Catalogue Cover Competition, which sees her artwork featured on the Pottery and Ceramics cover page.

The annual competition, which receives hundreds of entries from pupils in countries across the globe, gives aspiring young artists the opportunity to display their work in public through the Specialist Crafts online gallery and catalogue with the best pieces being selected to appear in their 644-page catalogue.

13 pupils from Bishop’s Stortford College Upper Fifth Form submitted a selection of their GCSE coursework and final examination artwork to the competition in June. Specialist Crafts commented, “Each year we are delighted to see the incredible artwork submitted to our Catalogue Cover Competition from hundreds of talented art students.”

Describing the selection process as “almost impossible”, the arts and crafts company announced in December that Harriet’s ceramics piece, which she created using a centuries old Japanese technique known as Raku firing, was one of the winning pieces and would be printed in the globally distributed catalogue. Harriet’s prize also includes a voucher which can be used to buy supplies from the 16,000 arts, crafts and design products featured in the catalogue.

The College would like to congratulate Harriet on this wonderful achievement. Her winning piece can be viewed online and in the printed version of the Specialist Crafts Catalogue 2020.

Schools Football Association National Festival.

Bishop’s Stortford College Prep School pupil, Jake B, has been selected as part of the U13 Herts and Essex football squad for the prestigious Independent Schools Football Association National Festival at Shrewsbury School from 4th – 6th April.

Jake was selected from 40 of the region’s strongest footballers during trials held over two weekends at Lochinver House School in Potters Bar. Herts and Essex is one of the most successful teams of the region and therefore selection to this squad is particularly competitive. Jake is Captain of the College U13 Football team and led them in their triumph at the IAPS National Football Championships in November 2019. In his spare time, Jake also plays for Ware FC.

The Herts and Essex squad includes boys from Haileybury, Aldenham School, Forest School, York House School, Berkhamsted School and Lochinver House. The squad’s training schedule will commence shortly and includes matches against academy teams from Watford and Leyton Orient football clubs.

Head of Prep School Football, Mr David Herd, commented, “Jake’s football has developed phenomenally during the last two seasons. He leads his team mates by setting the tempo with his high energy and work rate. He has deservedly earned a brilliant opportunity to showcase his talents on a national stage. Well done, Jake!”

The College would like to wish Jake and his fellow Herts and Essex squad members, the very best of luck in the National Festival in April.

in the UK by The Cricketer magazine. 

Once again, Bishop’s Stortford College has been named as one of the top 100 schools for cricket in the UK by The Cricketer magazine.

Inclusion in The Cricketer’s guide is a huge achievement for the College which saw a record number of schools, from both the state and independent sectors, submit outstanding entries. All entries were judged against an extensive set of criteria, with the chosen schools having outstanding facilities, fixture programmes and coaching.

Simon Hughes, editor of The Cricketer magazine commented, “The Schools Guide is, as ever, a fantastic publication that celebrates schools’ cricket and gives deserved praise to all those teachers and coaches who put in the hard work to develop our future club, county and international cricketers.”

Dave Hughes, Head of Cricket at the College said, “We’re delighted that the College has once again been recognised as one of the top 100 schools for cricket by The Cricketer magazine. As the calibre of submissions gets stronger and stronger each year, it makes our inclusion on the list all the more special. Cricketers at the College benefit from the use of our state-of-the-art practice and playing facilities, which allow us to host Hertfordshire CCC matches in addition to our own school fixtures. When considered alongside the news that from January 2020 we’ll be an MCC Foundation Hub, it’s wonderful that we will be able to share our facilities with the wider community.”

As well as appearing in print in the world’s No.1 cricket magazine, the guide will also be made available on The Cricketer website.

staff are once again celebrating as 75% of all examinations have been graded 9-7 (or A*-A using the old system) making these the best results ever achieved*. Of the 1100+ examinations sat, 337 of them were awarded the top grade of 9; 625 being graded 9 or 8.

38 pupils have been awarded the College’s coveted Ten Club tie for achieving 10 or more grades at 9 -7 with a total of 238 grade 9s between them.

Of the 5 sets of twins in the cohort, Freddie and Hattie C, Charlie and Tom M, Charlotte and Elizabeth T, Lewys and Owain W and Annie and Penny Z have a stunning 32 grade 9s between them.

Top performers were Elizabeth G (12 9s), Penny Z (11 9s), Holly H and Sachi P (10 9s each), and Freddie C, Isabel G, Clara H, Lauren H, Caspar S, Lana V and Adam W-B who all achieved at least 9 grade 9 examinations.

College Headmaster, Jeremy Gladwin commented, “Wow, what a spectacular set of results! I am so proud of this year group and of their teachers who have worked tirelessly to help and support them throughout their GCSE courses. The College goes from strength to strength academically, whilst at the same time offering a rich and varied extra-curricular programme. Every single member of the year group has achieved 5 or more 9-4 (A*-C grades). I remain, as ever, incredibly proud of everyone at Bishop’s Stortford College.”

*England average 21.9% (Ofqual)

this, the first year of fully reformed A Level examinations, Bishop’s Stortford College Upper Sixth Formers are once again celebrating a 100% pass rate. 74 of the 120 strong year group have achieved grades of ABB or higher. Nearly half the results were graded A and above, far outperforming the national average of 25.5% (ITV/BBC).

Students Ruilin X, Luke E, Nena N, Wendy C, Ai K achieved the top results with 17 A* and 3 A grades between them. A quarter of the year group gained 3 A grades or more.

Of the 13 pupils who took the optional EPQ (Extended Project Qualification), 7 have achieved A* and 5 a grade A.

Analysis of the Value-Added data, the measure that seeks to identify the difference the school has made to pupils’ attainment, shows once again that teaching at the College has made a significant difference to the progress and outcomes of the pupils.

College Headmaster, Jeremy Gladwin said, “I am once again thrilled by the excellent performance of our students, more than half of whose grades were A*/A and who, year on year, with the assistance of our outstanding team of dedicated specialist teachers, produce fantastic results, which show strongly positive value-added. As a school, our aim is to develop potential and to exceed expectations and our students have, once again, realised this aspiration.

These results have been achieved in an extremely busy, successful school, where pupils enjoy a wealth of opportunities through a very wide extracurricular programme; this sets them up for university and for broader life after secondary education. I am really proud of our Upper Sixth who have worked so hard to make their dreams come true. Their places at many of the country’s top universities, will not only provide them with a fresh challenge, but will also ensure many more wonderful opportunities as they look to develop their life skills and prepare for their future careers.”

the East Regional Championships with a time of 14.14 seconds, Elijah went onto the National Finals, sailing through his heat with a time of 13.19 seconds. However, up against 7 other boys from competing prep schools, Elijah saved his best running until last and completed the final race in first place with a Personal Best of 13.14 seconds, earning him the title National 100m Champion for his age category.

Hannah Fordham, Head of Athletics, commented, “Elijah has always been a keen sportsman and he excels in all sports. He is incredibly hard working and determined and I am so proud of him for becoming the 100m National Champion. I look forward to seeing his continued success in the sport.”

The College would like to congratulate Elijah on this wonderful achievement.

the Prep School Prefects as one of the beneficiaries of their 2018/19 fundraising, supports those who are suffering from life-limiting illnesses and their families. Their young persons’ group, Children and Teen Support (CATS), aims to provide support and care for children aged 5-16 who are facing impending loss or are already bereaved. The programme offers a range of activities which allow the young people to explore and express their feelings through a creative outlet

A Charity Day Assembly, at which many of the Prep School pupils came dressed in the theme of ‘Sunshine, Summer and Sunflowers’ started off the day of thanks and was shortly followed by a charity cake sale. In the afternoon, the College welcomed 35 hospice volunteers into the Memorial Hall for an unique service organised by the pupils. A performance from the Grimwade House Choir and several solo musical performances were followed by speeches from the Prefects, in which they gave their warm thanks and appreciation to the Isabel Hospice volunteers for everything they do. Towards the end of the service, the volunteers were asked to check under their seats and those lucky enough to find a winning ticket, were pleased to discover they had won one of several special prizes donated by Boots the Chemist.

The service was followed by an afternoon tea in the Ferguson Lecture Theatre, kindly sponsored by Tees Law. The Prep School Prefects enjoyed chatting to the volunteers, whilst serving cream teas to their guests. Every volunteer was then presented with a small goody bag with contents generously donated by Waitrose and Partners, Boots the Chemist and Evolve Organic Beauty. The volunteers also received a candle, chocolates and a handwritten poem on a scroll. Special messages of thanks, handwritten by the Prefects, covered the outsides of the bags to remind the volunteers how much their wonderful work is appreciated.

Jane Towns, Prep School Teacher and Prep School Prefects and Charities Coordinator commented, “It was a privilege to be working in partnership with our local community and to host such wonderful volunteers. The Prep School Prefects now have a greater understanding of what it means to ‘serve in the local community’.”

Bishop’s Stortford College would like to extend the Prep School’s thank you to all of the Isabel Hospice volunteers for the care and support they give and to the companies who generously supported the event.

against almost 5,000 pupils from 285 schools in the regional rounds, the College pupils all placed within the top twenty in each individual and team relay event to qualify for the nationals.

Three girls’ teams and two boys’ teams swam the relay events with each team improving on their regional round qualifying times. In the freestyle relay the U11 girls’ finished 7th and the boys’ finished 15th, both U12 teams finished 10th and the girls’ U13 team finished 6th. In the Medley relay the boys’ U12 team finished 13th and the U13 girls’ finished 6th, as did the U12 girls, improving their original rankings by an impressive 5 places.

The individual events took place after the relays and once again every pupil who swam improved either their regional round time or ranking position. Standout performances were Brianna H-H who beat her regional 50m backstroke time by 3 seconds, finishing 4th in the finals, and Alice L who smashed her 50m breaststroke regional time by 4 seconds and finished in 2nd place in the U12 finals, earning her the silver medal.

These results come hot on the heels of the success of three Senior School pupils who have qualified for the British and English National Championships. Bryn C qualified for the British Summer Nationals in the 200m breaststroke event alongside qualifying for the English Nationals in the 50m and 100m breaststroke events. Alex C and Mehdi E-M have also both qualified for the English Nationals. Alex will compete in the 50m and 100m backstroke events, whilst Mehdi will swim in the 400m freestyle, 200m backstroke, 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley events.

The College would like to congratulate all of these swimmers on their fantastic achievements.

announce the appointment of Kathy Crewe-Read as their next Head. Only the 10th Head to be appointed in the 150 year history of the College, Mrs Crewe-Read will be joining the College on 1st September 2020.

Following a rigorous selection process, Kathy was appointed from an exceptionally strong field of candidates and will succeed Jeremy Gladwin who announced his retirement from the post of College Headmaster, earlier this year.

After graduating in Pure Mathematics, Kathy has enjoyed a successful career in education. She has taught at a number of HMC schools and joins the College from Wolverhampton Grammar School, an award winning, co-educational day school, where she has been the Head since 2013. It was at Wolverhampton where she built and led her staff to excellence, earning the title of 2018 Senior Leadership Team of the Year, in the TES Independent Schools Awards – “The judges chose Wolverhampton Grammar School because it was clear that a closely knit team was addressing, with real care, many aspects of school life.” She is an inspector with the Independent Schools’ Inspectorate, Chair of the HMC West Group, governor at the Merchant Taylors’ Schools and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has been reported widely in the national media, representing the sector on a number of diverse issues including the role of digital technology in education and the public benefit of independent schools. Her interests include road cycling, hill walking and gardening.

Chair of Bishop’s Stortford College Governing Council, Guy Baker, said, “We were extremely impressed with Kathy’s ambition to deliver a strategy that would benefit the whole College and most importantly, each and every pupil. Based on her significant achievements at Wolverhampton Grammar School, we found her compelling as a candidate for the role of Head, inspiring great confidence in what most people will recognise as a key decision for the College. We are really delighted with the appointment and very much look forward to working with Kathy.”

Kathy commented, “I first visited this school some twenty years ago and it left a lasting impression with me. Bishop’s Stortford College is brilliantly placed to prepare our children to live well in their future world and I want to help as many families as possible realise that ambition by becoming part of this extraordinary community.”

School were awarded first prize in the AWS Get | IT competition.

Since the Autumn Term, the group of Upper Third (Year 8) pupils have been developing an app designed to solve a real-life problem in their school or local community. The project, part of the Get | IT competition in which 130 schools have taken part, was launched by AWS to fill the digital skills gap in the UK, improve communication and inspire young people, (particularly girls) to consider a career in technology.

Following a bootcamp at the London offices of AWS in December, the team returned to develop their ideas and their presentation, which was formally submitted to the competition at the end of March. Just a couple of weeks later, the team heard their idea was one of the final 10 to go through to the annual AWS Summit.

At the Summit, the teams were split into two groups of five, with each team presenting their ideas to their group panel. Each panel then selected one team to go through to the Grand Final. The day was both exciting, tense and challenging but the final test was the Grand Final for which the Prep School team was incredibly proud to have been selected.

Presenting in a 1200 seat theatre, whose occupants included the other school team finalists and members of the ‘tech community’, the team explained how their app, ‘Connect Hearo’ could help to solve the problems of up to 45,000 moderately to severely deaf school children in the UK through the use of speech to text technology. The Grand Final judging panel included top tech personnel from AWS, Cancer Research UK, the Ministry of Justice and Deloitte. The app will now be developed and marketed by AWS.

Wendy Sharman, Director of Studies in the Prep School commented, “This has been an interesting and exciting challenge for the children. They have had to identify a problem and think carefully about how they might solve it using technology. They have learned an incredible amount and we are particularly proud of their achievements. We look forward to seeing the app available to those who will benefit.”

Photo: The 5 Prep School pupils on stage with their trophy

Prep Schools (IAPS) National Swimming Finals have been announced. 24 pupils from Bishop’s Stortford College Prep School are celebrating their qualification for the event which will be held at the London Aquatic Centre on Saturday 8th June.

With events ranging from the Under 10 25m Breaststroke, Under 11 Free Relay, Under 12 50m Backstroke, Medley and Free Relay and Under 13 50m Freestyle, only the top 20 swimmers in each category have qualified for the Finals with one category having 175 contestants. Deborah Huggett, Head of Swimming at the College commented, “This is an incredible achievement. The girls have done particularly well with 5 of our relay teams making the finals but the boys should be equally proud, as they have 3 relay teams competing. Several of our squad will be competing in more than one event – we are so proud of them.”

Training will now continue apace in the next 5 weeks as the pupil prepare for the IAPS National Swimming Finals.

Photo: BSC’s swimming pool

Stortford College Upper 6th Form students Joseph Hawkins and Adam Bassingthwaighte qualified by scoring more than 150 runs in the 2018 season. Based on their impressive batting averages they have been included in the top 100 schoolboy cricketers in the country: Joseph scored 452 runs at an average of 64.57 which put him in 22nd place whilst Adam scored 322 runs at an average of 64.40 which put him in 25th place.

Current Head of Cricket, Matt Drury commented, “This is an incredible achievement for both boys, not only to finish in the top 100 but for them both to make the top 25 is sensational.”

Joseph and Adam are both Sports Scholars at the College. They participate in the Elite Sports programme which gives them personalised strength and conditioning programmes in addition to year-round specialist coaching. Both play for Bishop’s Stortford Cricket Club first XI and have represented Hertfordshire and Essex respectively.

Dave Hughes, who will be Head of Cricket from September said, “They have both made an excellent start to the season, putting in strong performances in the first two weeks of term. By maintaining their hard work and dedication we hope they will each gain a place in the history books again next year.”

pPhoto: Joe Hawkins batting

as the annual Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme statistics are published.

A total of 152 enrolments, resulting in 125 Awards, 16 of which were Gold, places the College as one of the top independent schools for DofE in 2018-19 in the county. With the highest number of DofE enrolments in Hertfordshire and an average completion rate, over the last five years of 77%, the College is justifiably proud and looks forward to achieving above and beyond its target completion rate for the year 2019-20.

The Awards, which test and develop pupils’ life skills (such as resilience), their ability to learn new skills, their physical abilities, determination and willingness to take part in expeditions and support their community through volunteering are highly regarded by employers and universities alike.

Gill Lynch, DofE Co-ordinator at Bishop’s Stortford College commented, “The Award at the College continues to be successful at all levels. It has been particularly pleasing to see the numbers of Gold participants who have completed their award increasing over the last few years. Praise and thanks must also go to the small dedicated team of staff who support the pupils throughout their participation in the Award.”

City Junior Hockey Club, contributed to the Cambridge U16 team’s win at the Regional Finals on Sunday 10th March.

Undeterred by blustery weather conditions, the girls dominated play and stormed through to victory in all three of their matches; 2-1 against Hertford, 1-0 against Old Loughtonians and 2-0 in their final match against Chelmsford.

These three wins secured the Cambridge U16’s place in the National Finals, for a second consecutive year, which will be held on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th April against seven other teams.

Well done to the five College girls; Imogen S., Emelia M., Lizzy T., Tabby B. and Lana V. for their performances and our congratulations are extended to the entire squad as we look forward to April.