at Frickley Park in Yorkshire in the summer.

Competing with her horse, Spano de Nazca, Georgia, who is a sixth form student at St Swithun’s, was contesting the CCIJ*, a three-day event incorporating dressage, cross country and show-jumping phases. After an initial vet’s inspection and two days of dressage, Georgia and Spano de Nazca were lying in third place. A clear cross country round, inside the time, moved them up to second. Heavy rain during the night proved problematic for the show-jumping phase on the final day. Georgia jumped a clear round, together with only six others in her class and secured the championship.

Georgia’s performance also helped the South East region, for which she was riding, to a third place in the team competition.

Georgia’s championship success and a subsequent second place in her first intermediate under 21 event earned her an invitation to join the junior GBR development squad. She has been selected to compete for Great Britain in the Junior Nations Cup which takes place in Belgium at the end of September.

Headmistress Jane Gandee said “Georgia excels in all areas of school life, managing to combine her academic studies and participation in all activities at school with the demands of her sport. We are very proud of her achievements.”

and 85% of all entries awarded an A* or A.  These results come against the backdrop of a decline in GCSE grades nationally and in the first year of a numerical grading system for some subjects.

Over two thirds of entries were awarded the top grade in nine subjects including all three sciences (biology, chemistry and physics) as well as English language, French, German, Greek, Latin and Spanish.

Nine girls achieved A* in all of their subjects, and over half of St Swithun’s pupils were awarded all A* or A grades. Overall, 97% of results were A* to B.

“I am delighted with the achievements of the girls this year.” said headmistress Jane Gandee. “They have excelled academically whilst still enjoying notable successes outside the classroom. This year group can boast national level sporting representation, county champions and outstanding performance in academic competitions. They have also excelled in supporting each other and have made us all laugh with their light-hearted approach. We are looking forward to seeing them flourish in the sixth form.”

one A*, with over a fifth of the year group earning two or more A* grades, and overall 88% of entries were graded A* to B. Notably, A-level grades remained high in this first year of the newly-reformed A-level courses in eight subject areas, which accounted for more than half of all A levels taken at St Swithun’s.

In individual subject areas 50% or more of papers in Greek, history of art, Latin, physics, politics and food technology were graded A*, and a third or more of entries in English literature, mathematics, and religious studies also achieved A*. In 10 subjects 100% of candidates earned A* to B grades, including in all five languages offered: French, German, Spanish, Latin and Greek.

Additionally, a record number of girls, nearly one-third of the year group, took the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), which is equivalent to half an A level and held in high esteem by universities for the skills of self-directed, independent study that it cultivates. They achieved 100% A* to B grades, with 55% A* and 75% A* and A.

When data from baseline testing is taken into account, impressively three quarters of girls earned higher grades across their subjects than predicted, with over half of all A-level grades one grade or more above forecast.

This year’s leavers have earned places at a number of universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham, Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, KCL, Manchester, Newcastle, UCL and Warwick to study a diverse range of degree subjects, including archaeology and anthropology, biology, Classics, English literature, geography, history, history of art, international relations, law, medicine, modern languages, natural sciences, philosophy, physics and veterinary science.

The headmistress, Jane Gandee, commented, “We are delighted for this year’s leavers and proud of how so many of them exceeded expectations. Fittingly, they have achieved highly across the A-level curriculum, and the fact that they have done so as the first year group affected by the changes to A levels shows their capacity for hard work, determination and resilience, as well as the skill of our dedicated, able teachers. My colleagues and I wish them every success as they progress from school to the next stages of their lives and education.”

Photo: St Swithun’s students celebrated strong A-level results.

2016 A’ level results and the number of pupils obtaining the top A* and A grades.

The award was presented to headmistress, Jane Gandee, by Duncan Quirk from Education Advisers Limited, an education consultancy which provides advice and services to parents and students seeking private education in the UK.

“We are proud and delighted to have been recognised by Education Advisors Limited for the quality of the education provided at St Swithun’s” said Ms Gandee. ‘In addition to academic excellence, we believe in providing our pupils with the opportunity to do something else, and this is never more prevalent than in our weekend activity programme. We offer a full and varied mix of cultural, social and recreational activities which we believe will broaden a boarder’s experience.” 

Photo: Jane Gandee, Headmistress St Swithun’s School and Duncan Quirk from Education Advisers.

inspection of both St Swithun’s senior and junior schools, carried out in February, the quality of pupils’ personal development was also awarded the highest rating the inspectors can use.

In the senior school, pupils’ outstanding success in academic examinations and national competitions was noted, together with achievement in a wide range of extra-curricular activities, with county and national recognition in several sports. Pupils had exceptional communications skills and the ability to analyse complex problems. A highly effective academic tracking and monitoring system was found to support strong progress. The report highlighted collaborative working among pupils, considerable positive commitment to others, both within and beyond the school, and a strong sense of moral responsibility as features of pupils’ personal development.

Children in the early years’ foundation stage at St Swithun’s Junior school were said to make individual progress through a carefully planned, broad curriculum. Across the school, outstanding achievements in a range of activities, including sport, music and drama were noted by the inspection team, as well as pupils’ success in winning places at independent day and boarding schools against strong competition. The report found ‘there are excellent relationships between teachers and pupils themselves, who are highly supportive of one another’, and that pupils at all ages show high levels of self-knowledge, self-esteem, self-confidence and resilience. Staff at the junior school plan to set out more clearly the system of merits and house points to maintain levels of motivation amongst all pupils.

In the context of the ‘excellent’ grading awarded by the inspectors, St Swithun’s school was advised to increase opportunities for pupils to use digital and ICT skills to support their learning. The school’s digital learning programme, which began in September 2016 and is being rolled out, aims to establish integrated, consistent digital learning practices throughout the school and confirm St Swithun’s staff and students as leading practitioners of digital learning.

The report of the Independent Schools’ Inspectorate follows recent results for St Swithun’s of baseline predictive tests administered through the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) at the University of Durham. The tests predict the most likely grade outcomes for students based on the performance in the past of other students nationally with similar academic profiles. They also provide ‘value added’ data for students’ results in public examinations. The 2016 analysis shows that girls at St Swithun’s achieve approximately ½ grade higher than their baseline ability across all A-level subjects suggests, and almost one grade at GCSE.

Headmistress, Jane Gandee, said “I am delighted that the Independent Schools’ Inspectorate has recognised the hard work of the staff in both schools to ensure that we provide an outstanding, rounded education at St Swithun’s. These positive inspection findings and our strong value-added scores demonstrate the success of our unique blend”.

The three-and-a-half hour examination paper is the final stage of a competition entered by over a quarter of a million students nationwide.

Suzie scored full marks on all six of the fiendishly difficult questions that made up her Olympiad paper, placing her top in Britain. Last year, on the corresponding Year 10 Olympiad paper, her result placed her in the top 100.

Qualification for the Year 11 Olympiad competition was based on performance in the Intermediate Maths Challenge. Suzie was one of only 20 students who scored perfect marks on this paper.

Head of Mathematics at St Swithun’s, Stephen Power said “We are immensely proud of Suzie and her latest achievement. Suzie works so hard to improve her understanding of every aspect of the subject and is a fantastic example to others. Suzie genuinely enjoys grappling with the hardest mathematical problems.”

St Swithun’s team come away as clear leaders with wins over Marlborough (3-1), St Helens and St Katherine (3-1), Haberdashers’ Monmouth B (7-0), St Mary’s Calne (4-1) and St Bartholomews (5-0). This put them in the championship division for the afternoon where they went on to win the whole tournament beating Cheltenham Ladies College (3-2), St Mary’s School, (3-0), Downe House (4-0), Haberdashers’ Monmouth A, (5-0) and narrowly losing to Queen Anne’s School (1-2).

Mrs Hogg their coach was thrilled with the result: “It was thoroughly deserved. The team were exceptional and are a dream team to coach. Special mention goes to the two captains Cressida Kennedy (from Hook) and Jemima Brown (from Alresford) for being outstanding leaders both on and off the pitch, and scoring so many goals for the team throughout the day”.

Photo: St Swithun’s U14 South West Rally winners

The Institute of Engineering and Technology for her studies in General Engineering at Durham University.

Lydia, who took mathematics, physics, further mathematics and chemistry at A2 level at St Swithun’s, applied for the scholarship on the recommendation of one of her teachers. The scholarship consists of at least £1,000 per year during her studies up to a maximum of £3,000 for Bachelors students and at least £4,000 for MEng students.

The Diamond Jubilee Scholarships are named in honour of the IET’s patron, Her Majesty The Queen, and aim to help address the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills shortage in the UK. The main aim of the initiative is to encourage talented students to study IET accredited courses, which will put them on a path that is not only challenging and rewarding, but is also vital to future prosperity.

This year, 100 scholarships have been awarded to students who started either a masters or an undergraduate engineering degree at a UK based university in the autumn of 2016, and 51% of these have been awarded to female candidates.

Jeremy Watson CBE, IET President, said: “In a world where technology is moving faster than ever before, I believe we need to think more broadly and remove unnecessary barriers that might be discouraging more young people from becoming engineers. In other words, we need to be more inclusive about inspiring and recruiting the next generation of engineers.

“With this in mind, we are really pleased to give financial help to over 100 young people as a result of our prestigious Diamond Jubilee scholarships. We hope that they will go on to become the leaders of tomorrow in an industry which offers a diverse range of exciting opportunities and challenges.”

Lydia, who plans to use some of the money for a new laptop and books for her studies, said “I chose to do general engineering at university because I am interested in trying out all of the disciplines before I decide what to specialise in. I participated in Greenpower (designing, building and making electric cars) for 7 years at St Swithun’s. This helped me see the practical side to engineering and it was so involving and fun that I decided to study engineering at university”.

Photo: Lydia (standing at the back) with the St Swithun’s Green power team in 2015

final. This is the first time St Swithun’s girls have achieved this level at cross-country running.

The team qualified for the regional event in early October when they won the first round on home turf at St Swithun’s School. They then went on to finish 1^st in the regional event at Tonbridge on 12 November to secure their team place in the national final which was held on the 3 December at Range High School in Formby, Lancashire, with 140 runners competing.

The intermediate team is:  Alessandra Tydeman, aged 14 from Woodbridge (9th), Tallulah Jeffes, 14 from Winchester, (16th), Elizabeth Adamson, 13 from Eastleigh (55th), Alice Calder, 15 from Alresford (58th), Maddie Turner, 15 from Andover (93rd) and Florence Goodhand, 14 from Alresford (118th).

Four U14 team members also competed in the Inter Schools cross-country competition at Anstey Park on 29 November where they won the team event. Alessandra Tydeman came third to win the bronze medal, Sophia Motala Evans was 11^th, Isabel Melhuish, 14^th and Florence Goodhand 16^th.

The St Swithun’s U12 and U13 teams also ran extremely good races to both achieve second place out of 20 schools competing in their respective categories at the same event.

St Swithun’s sports coach Dot Hogg said “The girls have worked hard individually and produced exceptional results in their cross country running this term.  They are great at motivating one another, especially on rainy days, to push the whole team to success. I am very proud of them and congratulate them on their placings at both the regional and national events”.

Photo: St Swithun’s intermediate cross-country team

was awarded the Sampson Cup for the highest woodwind performance overall in the festival. She also went on to receive the prestigious Peter Cheer Cup for the most promising instrumental musician in 2016.

Emma received honours for her three saxophone recital pieces of Banbridge Town Co. Down (Tweed), Laid back Lester (Lyons) and Vocalise (Rachmaninov). One of the judges’ comments regarding Vocalise was “One of the best accounts I have heard of this with interest sustained and controlled breathing throughout”, and regarding Banbridge Town Co. Down “You have a sensitivity to expression that shows maturity”.

She also played Adagio & Allegro (Leonardo Vinci) in the woodwind grade 7-8+ class and performed a lovely flute duet of Gavotte (Loeillet) with Poppy Johnson from Fareham in the woodwind duet, trio or quartet class.

Emma will be performing at the Portsmouth Music Festival in mid-February and the scholars and exhibitioners’ concert at St Swithun’s School in the spring.
 

Photo: Emma Pearce with the Peter Cheer Cup

the event which attracted 15 school U19 teams from across the South West region.

The 1^st team played some tough opponents to reach the final. They came top of their group, winning all four matches against Westonbirt, Malvern St James, Haberdashers’ Monmouth and Heathfield.  They then went on to win 4-1 against St Mary’s Calne and 4-2 against Godolphin, putting them through to the quarter-finals. They beat St Mary’s Calne in the semi-finals but narrowly lost in a tough match against Downe House in the final.

St Swithun’s 2^nd team were the overall winners of their competition, winning 14 of their 20 matches and beating Downe House 2-1 in the semi- final and then St Mary’s Calne 3-2 in the final.

A St Swithun’s team also competed in the South Schools Invitational championships in mid-November where they won the bowl.

St Swithun’s coach Kate Nelson-Lee said “I am delighted with the performance of the team in the South West Schools Rally.  The South Schools Championships is a good test to see where we are against the powerhouse schools from Surrey such as Guildford High, Lady Eleanor Holles and St Catherine’s. It is a privilege to be invited to the tournament and the girls played well throughout the day, though sustaining some heavy injuries. We eventually triumphed over St. Paul’s Girls 3-2 in the bowl final. We are making good progress as we move towards the Rathbones National Schools Championships in early March”.

Photo: St Swithun’s U19 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd lacrosse teams

to him about what they had undertaken to achieve their awards. Their certificates were presented by Rebecca Stephens, the first British woman to climb Mount Everest. Rebecca talked about her own experiences and impressed on the award holders that the skills of overcoming challenges and building trust and teamwork are ones which are core to a DofE award and that these will be skills they can draw on whatever they do in the future.

Each year, around 120 St Swithun’s girls undertake their Duke of Edinburgh challenges, with around 25 achieving the gold award. Having achieved their DofE gold awards, the girls and a parent are invited to St James’s Palace for one of the presentations with the Duke of Edinburgh or the Earl of Wessex.

Completing a DofE award at any level is a significant commitment and requires resilience, self-motivation and independence from those taking part. To achieve the gold standard of the award requires all these attributes in abundance and is a magnificent achievement for those who are successful.

St Swithun’s DofE coordinator Andy Parker said, “It is always a huge pleasure to see the girls reach the end of their DofE journey and have this marked by collecting their certificates at St James’s Palace. It is a pretty unique opportunity to meet either the Duke of Edinburgh or the Earl of Wessex who are always very interested in what the young people have done to achieve the award and what they are doing now.”

The following pupils were presented with their Gold awards on this occasion:
Rebecca Dunn, Georgia and Hannah Tice (all from Southampton), Megan Jolleys and Hannah Hartman (both from Winchester), Sophie Hext from Dummer, Jessica Parker from Hook, Emma Shore from Petersfield and Olivia Williams from Brockenhurst.

Photo: St Swithun’s DofE Gold award recipients at St James’s Palace

consultant and St Swithun’s parent Mr Javed Bhatti in mid-November.

Mr Bhatti is the first person to have achieved running the 268 mile Montane Spine Race twice, completing a distance of over 500 miles, along the entire length of the Pennine Way and back again in one go in mid-winter. This challenge alone raised over £7,000 split between the Mountain Rescue Service and Allegra’s Ambition charity, in memory of former St Swithun’s pupil Allegra Whittome.

Modestly describing his running background and tools for improvement, Mr Bhatti’s talk, entitled Resilience, offered messages applicable to any sporting or indeed life situation.

The audience were fascinated to learn about the psychological tools, nutritional and physical preparation required to complete such feats of endurance. Mr Bhatti described how he treats each of his challenges as a game or ‘a dance with angels’ rather than focussing on the difficulties.

For more information about the Montane Spine Race –  http://thespinerace.com/

For more information about Allegra’s Ambition – http://www.allegrasambition.org.uk/

Photo: Headmistress Jane Gandee, Mr Javed Bhatti, St Swithun’s sixth formers and science teacher Mr Michael Tanner

variety of workshop sessions where they learned about areas of mathematics rarely seen in a school.

Peter Ransom of the Mathematical Association gave a session on the mathematics of Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar whilst dressed in full historical sailor costume.  James Hall of Harrow School took students “To Infinity and Beyond”.  Hugh Hill of Winchester College explored astroids (mathematical curves) with a ruler and a pair of compasses. Dominic Rowland, also of Winchester College, teased the students with tetrominoes (shapes made from four adjoining squares). Stephen Power, head of mathematics at St Swithun’s, contributed a session which allowed students to create their very own “Personalised Polynomials”.

The students thoroughly enjoyed themselves, adding that the two days were “difficult and challenging, but great fun”.

Photo: Mathematical Circle attendees at St Swithun’s School

first time the Winchester based school has hosted an ESAA event on their extensive Hampshire grounds. 15 schools from Hampshire and Surrey attended with 360 runners competing across the four categories of junior girls, junior boys, intermediate girls and intermediate boys.

In the intermediate girls’ race of 2.9km the St Swithun’s School team ran extremely well and finished as winners. Weekly boarder Alessandra Tydeman, aged 14 from Woodbridge came 1^st with Tallulah Jeffes 6^th, Elizabeth Adamson 8^th, Alice Calder 9^th, Maddie Turner 11^th and Florence Goodhand in 27^th place.

The junior team also competed well and came second in their event of 2.23km. Phoebe Peters came 6^th, Grace McKee 8^th, Emma Pearce 17^th, Ayomide Cole 20^th, Sophie Newman 26^th and Emily Beardmore Gray 33^rd.
Both St Swithun’s School teams now progress through to the regional round.

Photo: St Swithun’s senior team runners competing in ESAA cross country event at the school