The television programme offers Lego enthusiasts the chance to demonstrate their creativity and building skills in a bid to become the Lego Masters Champion.

Izzy wrote a letter to the show’s producers after watching season one, and was invited to an audition with her father and build-partner Stuart. After impressing the judges with a series of constructions, they were selected to become one of the eight teams competing in the new season.

A Lego enthusiast since the age of seven, Izzy says that ‘building with Lego is my way of relaxing, and is also my main creative outlet. I like to tell stories with my builds, and I can let my imagination run wild. Even when my father and I are competing against the clock and the other teams on the show, I still find it all so much fun’.

Each episode of the show presents teams with a set challenge where they have time to plan their build, followed by an unplanned task that is a complete surprise. The losing pair are eliminated from the competition.

Izzy and Stuart performed well in the first three episodes, and her boarding house at St Swithun’s is hosting viewing parties with Lego man-shaped cakes and jelly for each episode. Headmistress Jane Gandee said ‘It’s really great to see the boarding community come together to support Izzy during Lego Masters, and we are all very proud of her achievements. We are looking forward to seeing how far she can go in the competition’.

Photo caption: Izzy and Stuart in the famous Lego Masters build room

successfully nominated the RNLI appeal as one of the school’s three charitable causes for the year and has helped to organise activities to fund the boat, which will be named after her mother.

Eleanor, who is in year 8, has been campaigning and fundraising for the RNLI since her mother died from cancer in 2015. When the family decided to create something tangible to commemorate her mother’s life, a lifeboat was the obvious choice. Her grandfather volunteered for the RNLI for 40 years.

‘The project has been a very positive experience for me,’ said Eleanor. ‘I have learned some good fundraising skills and managed to confront my fears when I spoke in front of 500 people at school and 100 at the charity ball we organised. I have also realised the power of the supportive, kind and energetic community at St Swithun’s.’

Eleanor’s initiative has raised £156,000 so far, with more activities planned. The donations will provide a new B class Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat which will be stationed in Lough Ree, Ireland and is to be named the Tara Scougall, in honour of Eleanor’s mother. The boat will be built at the RNLI factory in East Cowes next year and is expected to be on service at the Irish lifeboat station at the end of 2019.

Headmistress Jane Gandee said ‘our lifeboat initiative embodies service, duty and working together to achieve something ambitious; values that are embedded in our ethos at St Swithun’s. We are very proud to support the appeal and Eleanor.’

the run up to the FIL U19 World Lacrosse Championships in Canada next summer. Between them the girls will join the Scotland, Wales and Ireland sessions, taking them one step closer to selection for their national squads.

St Swithun’s sports captain, 17 year old Amelia Brown already has four caps for the U19 Scotland team. She has been called up again for training along with her sister Jemima, 15, who has four caps for the Scotland B team. Tallulah Jeffes, who is 16, has also been selected for the Scotland team.

In Canada, the Ireland team will be playing at world cup level for the first time, competing against more than 20 other nations. Sisters Izzy and Eleanor Melhuish, aged 15 and 17 respectively have been selected to join the Ireland U19 training camp.

Meanwhile, 16 year old Siobhan Tainton is flying the flag for her home nation of Wales, having joined their training team over the summer holidays.

Head of lacrosse at St Swithun’s, Kate Nelson-Lee coached the U19 Scotland team before becoming assistant coach with England earlier this year. She said “I am really excited at the prospect of St Swithun’s girls playing in Peterborough, Canada. It would be a great privilege to watch St Swithun’s lacrosse players do our school proud on the international stage. I look forward to supporting them in their bids to be selected for the final squads.”

Photo: St Swithun’s students Amelia, Eleanor, Izzy, Jemima, Siobhan and Tallulah who are representing their national teams, photographed before lacrosse practice at school.

of Netball London Live 2018.

The St Swithun’s team qualified to take part in the tournament via the Road to the Copperbox competition, hosted by netball super league team Surrey Storm.

After a tight victory in the opening game, and two comfortable wins in their remaining group matches, the team advanced to a semi-final against Hoe Bridge School, the National IAPS champions. Holding their nerve, the St Swithun’s team scored the winning goal with 15 seconds of play remaining. They played the final of the competition on the Copperbox show court during half time of the London Live Superleague match between Surrey Storm and Loughborough Lightning.

Team coach and head of games at St Swithun’s Roger Marshall said: ‘The final of the Copperbox tournament was the culmination of four years of school netball and their last match as a team. To overcome the national champions and play on the show court at the Copperbox in front of the huge crowd at London Live was a fitting end to their time together.’

Photo: St Swithun’s U11 captain taking a shot during a match

compared to the national average of 4.3%. Half of the students achieved five or more A*/9 grades in a year where they took a mixture of the new courses graded numerically (9 to 1) and those with the legacy A* to G classification. Three girls achieved straight grades A* and 9.

In the new I/GCSEs more than 40% of entries achieved the top grade in geography, Latin, music and religious studies. In mathematics, 87% of students achieved grade 7 or above with 36% at the top grade 9.

Of the legacy I/GCSEs 57.5% of results were at A* with girls achieving particularly highly in biology, chemistry, physics and history with 77%, 61%, 63% and 74% A*s respectively. 95% of all entries were graded A* to B and all students taking the further mathematics IGCSE achieved the highest grade, A* with distinction.

Headmistress Jane Gandee said “These are our first set of results for 11 subjects that follow the new 9-to-1 specifications, blended with some that continue to follow the alphabetical grading system and I am delighted with the achievements of the girls. They have been a mutually-supportive year group and have demonstrated considerable good humour. They have excelled academically whilst still enjoying notable successes outside the classroom and playing an active role in the local Winchester community where students have helped to launch the UNIT 12 community centre, baked for the night shelter and worked with children from local junior schools. We are looking forward to welcoming them into the sixth form.”   

Photo: Top I/GCSE grades at St Swithun’s School in 2018

read engineering science at Trinity College, Oxford with a prestigious Jardine Scholarship.

Hongzhou achieved the A* grade in biology, chemistry, maths, further maths, physics, Chinese and the extended project qualification (EPQ). Hongzhou, who is 18 years of age and comes from Heilongjiang Province in China, became eligible for the Jardine award when she applied to Trinity College earlier this year. She was selected on the basis of a panel interview with seven experts.

A* grades were up for the second successive year at St Swithun’s with half the year group achieving at least one, and a quarter of the girls earning two or more.  The percentage of grades at A* and A was also higher than last year at 64%. In ten subjects, 100% of the results were A* to B and more than three quarters of the EPQ grades were A* or A. The EPQ is equivalent to half an A level and is held in high esteem by universities for the skills of self-directed, independent study that it cultivates. Hongzhou’s EPQ was on the use of anaesthetics in neo-natal care.

Along with Hongzhou, upper sixth leavers have earned places at a number of universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Imperial, KCL, Leeds, LSE, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, UCL and Warwick to study a diverse range of degree subjects, including accounting and finance, archaeology, biology, biomedical sciences, chemical engineering, Classics, economics, engineering, English literature, geography, history, history of art, international relations, law, management, mathematics, medicine, modern languages, pharmacy, philosophy and theology, physics, product design, psychology, theology and religion and urban planning.

Hongzhou’s career aspiration is to become a bio-medical engineer in order to design new medical products and improve existing ones. In addition to her studies at St Swithun’s she also found time to participate in various co-curricular activities including archery, coding and ballroom dancing. She was a lively and active member of her boarding house.

The Jardine Foundation which confers the prestigious Jardine Scholarship award aims to assist students who have the potential to become outstanding citizens and have a high commitment to the community. The award is open to all students from countries in which the Jardine Matheson Group has significant business interests and who are applying to study at one of the group’s preferred colleges at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge. The scholarship covers tuition and college fees as well as an annual stipend to cover board and lodging, and all other incidental expenses.

Learning of her A level results whilst on top of a mountain in her native China, Hongzhou said “the whole experience of applying for Oxford and interviewing for the Jardine Scholarship was amazing. To have done my best in my exams is a really satisfying end to the process and I am so proud of that.

I started off doing five A levels and then picked up another two at the end of L6. I considered not continuing with all of them, but then I thought I might as well push myself and see how far I could go. My teachers supported me and I have ended up completing them all. I am delighted with my grades. Over the past two years at St Swithun’s I have learned some new skills and gained a lot of confidence for the future. I am looking forward to the next stage of my academic journey.”

The headmistress, Jane Gandee, commented, “We are delighted for all of this year’s leavers and proud of their achievements. The fact that they have performed so highly in this, the first year of the new linear A-level courses in seven subjects, is testament to their resilience and determination, as well as to the hard work of our dedicated and inspiring teachers. We wish our leavers every success as they move into the next stages of their lives and look forward to hearing of their continued progress.”

Photo: St Swithun’s student Hongzhou Luan celebrates achieving seven A* grades at A level.

at least one A*, with a quarter of the girls earning two or more A* grades, both of which were increases on previous years. The percentage of grades at A*and A was also higher than last year, and 46% of girls achieved AAA or higher and 62% AAB or better. One student obtained an extraordinary seven A* grades.

100% of A level results were graded A* to B in the ten individual subjects of Classical civilisation, English literature, food technology, French, German, Greek, history, history of art, Latin and religious studies.

In addition, half of the pupils who undertook the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) gained an A* grade and 78% earned an A* or A. The EPQ is equivalent to half an A level and is held in high esteem by universities for the skills of self-directed, independent study that it cultivates.

Impressively, when data from baseline testing is taken into account girls from St Swithun’s achieve a half a grade higher at A level than predicted, with 47% of all results at least one grade higher.

This year’s leavers have earned places at a wide range of universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Imperial, KCL, Leeds, LSE, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, UCL and Warwick to study a diverse range of degree subjects, including accounting and finance, archaeology, biology, biomedical sciences, chemical engineering, Classics, economics, engineering, English literature, geography, history, history of art, international relations, law, management, mathematics, medicine, modern languages, pharmacy, philosophy and theology, physics, product design, psychology, theology and religion and urban planning.

The headmistress, Jane Gandee, commented, “We are delighted for this year’s leavers and proud of their achievements. The fact that they have performed so highly in this, the first year of the new linear A-level courses in seven subjects is testament to their resilience and determination, as well as to the hard work of our dedicated and inspiring teachers. We wish our leavers every success as they move into the next stages of their lives and look forward to hearing of their continued progress.”

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

in Winnall offering activities and services for local residents. This marked St Swithun’s inaugural community service week for Year 11 girls who have just finished their GCSE’s and was part of a three-day social action project organised by Community First Volunteer Service to promote UNIT 12, a recently established facility to provide activities for 7-18 year olds and semi-retired and retired residents of Winchester. The building on Winnall Valley Road has been completely transformed in the last year with a café, activity rooms, dance studios, a meeting room, and a spacious garden with BBQ facility.

Louise Todino, Director at UNIT 12, said “I have thoroughly enjoyed working in partnership with Community First and St Swithun’s to open our doors to the public to see what we do here. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all 25 girls from St Swithun’s who have given up their precious time to help out with the activities for the launch. They have been absolutely amazing, have shown great initiative and their enthusiasm was infectious; they are a real credit to St Swithun’s School. I would like to thank Community First for their help facilitating this event and Tesco and Homebase for their support”.

Activities over the three days included pamper sessions, first aid training, walking football, gardening, yoga, table tennis, social media training and music workshops all taking place around a community café. Amongst the highlights over the three days were visits from Winnall Primary school children where three different year groups took part in a music and dance workshop. Robin Williams, local resident and parent of Daisy from Year 3 said “I’ve enjoyed spending time with my daughter, Daisy, at UNIT 12 today. It’s great that they are trying to bring together different sections of the community to find out what’s going on at the Centre”.

Phoebe Shannon, St Swithun’s student, says “Over the three days I have really enjoyed the inter-generational dance workshop with pupils and parents from Winnall Primary School and transforming the garden into a more usable space with its own vegetable patch. Having just finished my GCSE’s it has been really great to use this time to give something back to the

community and would recommend any young people to volunteer”. Simon Mayes, Head of Outreach and Partnerships at St Swithun’s added “St Swithun’s has always had strong links with the local community and we hope that our involvement with UNIT 12 will be a long-term commitment to support an important local facility in addition to giving our pupils the opportunity to develop valuable skills such as leadership, commitment and resilience.”

The launch event culminated with a barbeque attended by The Mayor of Winchester and other dignitaries. UNIT 12 are excited about the activities programme that they are running for young people over the summer holidays and the new classes available for the over 60’s. For more information and to volunteer contact admin@unit-12.com. For a list of volunteering opportunities at UNIT 12 and the surrounding areas go to www.volunteerwessex.org

Photo: Mayor of Winchester with St Swithun’s pupils at UNIT 12

Nunney International event last weekend.

A fiercely contested second place finish in the final Junior Trial was enough to secure Georgia’s selection into the strong squad of five. This is a particularly noteworthy achievement because Georgia is in the middle of her A level courses – psychology, geography and religious education, and is studying hard at the same time as practising for the event.

Speaking about her selection and clearly feeling elated, Georgia said: “this has been a goal of mine for a very long time, and I am so excited to compete at the European Championships”. With six training sessions a week it has often required very strict time management to ensure that Georgia keeps pace with both her academic studies and her eventing. Highlighting her busy schedule and the importance of balancing her workload, Georgia has said that “there is an awful lot of travelling to and from events and training sessions, so I do a lot of my homework and studying in the horse lorry on the way”.

Eventing requires riders to demonstrate a range of different skills through the disciplines of dressage, show jumping and cross country. The scores from all three elements are then combined. Prior to the European Championships, Georgia will have additional training sessions in Cirencester and Bury St Edmunds.

Georgia will be riding her own 12 year old gelding Spano de Nazca at the Junior European Championships, which take place in Fontainebleau from 11-15 July.

organised by St Swithun’s school, was a Hampshire Music Services Hub event, open to woodwind, brass and percussion players of grade 5 and above. It began with a series of sectional workshops before the whole ensemble came together for a rehearsal with Major Ian Johnson, Director of Music of the Scots Guards.

A free concert in the evening commenced with a march on by the Scots Guards Band into the main auditorium of the Harvey Hall performing arts centre before the combined ensemble launched into a rousing medley of music from The Phantom of the Opera. The repertoire also included Firework by Katy Perry.

The band were joined by members of the St Swithun’s Choir for I Dreamed a Dream from the musical Les Misérables and a piece from the film Crimson Tide which blended the navy hymn Eternal Father Strong to Save with the haunting melody The Last Post played from the upper gallery by a solo trumpeter.

The Scots Guards Band played out to their regimental march Hielan’ Laddie.

Director of music at St Swithun’s School, YiRu Hall said: I was so pleased to be able to put together this amazing opportunity for our young musicians, both here at St Swithun’s and in the wider community. Everyone has had a wonderful day of music-making and the Band of the Scots Guards have been fantastic working with the children; talking with them about life as musicians in the army and being inspirational with their incredibly high standard of performance. Seeing the children’s smiles whilst playing alongside the Band was a real highlight for me.

inter-school philosothon competition featuring teams of year 10 girls from St Swithun’s, Henry Beaufort School and The Westgate School.

St Swithun’s hosts an academic lunch every week, inviting a different scholar or academic to visit the school and talk to the students about their academic passions, interests and research areas. Dr Boutel led a fascinating discussion on philosophical zombies, the philosophy of science, and developments in artificial intelligence and philosophical reflection.

Following lunch, Dr Boutel started the philosothon competition and offered some guiding principles for the sessions. He told the girls to search for truth, to keep asking questions, and to ask what if?

A philosothon is a friendly competition in which teams work together to reach a set of academically and philosophically satisfying ideas. Members of the team are all scored by the quality of their contributions, and also for their ability to help others to contribute. Those who forward the thinking of the team will score well. Those prepared to say controversial or disagreeable things could score well because it may help the team to agree some principles. The aim is not to point-score off each other, but to work creatively with ideas as a group. Girls from across the three schools were split up and worked through a carousel of sessions on aesthetics, the purpose of education and what literature can teach us about human nature. Each school had a winner, with the highest scores coming from Jess Hoyle of St Swithun’s, Amandine Brown from The Westgate School, and Josie Breen from Henry Beaufort School.

After the competition and presentation of prizes, St Swithun’s sixth form philosophers and enrichment officers offered their help to mentor younger girls through some of the big questions ahead regarding their future.

Head of academic enrichment at St Swithun’s, Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh said “the philosothon was a great success with each team offering some thoughtful and insightful ideas. This was the first of what we hope will be a termly competition and mentoring programme”.

Great Britain in the biathle at the European Championships this summer and Theya Dare Bryan, a ten year old pupil from St Swithun’s Junior School, will compete in the forthcoming Madeira International Biathle.

Isabelle was selected following her performance at the GB Biathle Race 2 European Championship qualifying event in Cheltenham in April. Despite having only recently moved up into the U15 category and being one of the youngest competitors in the event, Isabelle put in a stunning performance to finish in 6th place overall with a time of 07.48.7, which was good enough to qualify for a place in the GB squad. Theya qualified by finishing an excellent 8th with a time of 04.44.00 in the U11 category at the same event.

Biathle is a sub-sport of modern pentathlon invented to create opportunities to train for the running and swimming parts of pentathlon in real race conditions, but has become a popular sport in its own right. The event involves swimming and running in a continuous run/swim/run format, with the U15 category running 800m, followed by a 100m swim, and another 800m run, and the U11 category running 400m before a 50m swim and another 400m run.

In addition to her biathle achievements, Isabelle also took part in the Pentathlon GB South West Triathle Championships held at Leweston School in Sherbourne, and finished 7th. This performance earned her qualification to represent Great Britain in the European Triathle Championships this summer. Similar to biathle, the triathle is a continuous run/swim event but also incorporates a laser pistol shoot into the competition.

Director of sport at St Swithun’s Liz Phillips said: “Isabelle and Theya have worked incredibly hard this year on both their running and swimming in training sessions at school and at their clubs. It is great to see the success they are having as a result.”

The Madeira International Biathle was held on 10 June 2018, and the Biathle and Triathle European Championships will be held in Wieden, Germany on 27 & 28 July 2018.

Photo: St Swithun’s students Isabelle and Theya proudly displaying their new team GB kit.

comes from Heilongjiang Province in China, became eligible for the Jardine award when she applied to Trinity. Her selection was made on the basis of a first round interview in London and a final stage in Hong Kong where she answered questions about her inspiration, aspirations and thoughts on current affairs from a panel of seven experts representing the Jardine Matheson Group. The scholarship will cover Hongzhou’s tuition and college fees as well as an annual stipend to cover board and lodging, and all other incidental expenses.

Hongzhou’s career aspiration is to become a bio-medical engineer in order to design new medical products and improve existing ones. She is studying physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and further mathematics at St Swithun’s School. She also finds time to participate in various co-curricular activities.

The Jardine Foundation aims to assist scholars who have the potential to become outstanding citizens and have a high commitment to the community. The award is open to all students from countries in which the Jardine Matheson Group has significant business interests and who are applying to study at one of the group’s preferred colleges at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge.

Hongzhou said “the whole interview experience for the Jardine Scholarship was amazing. I learnt new skills and gained a lot of confidence for situations like this in the future. If, in the end, I hadn’t been awarded the scholarship, I would still have considered the experience incredibly worthwhile. I am so proud to have been selected.”

Headmistress Jane Gandee added “Hongzhou is a conscientious and able student who works hard. But she is also a lively member of her boarding house and is involved in a broad range of co-curricular activities. She thoroughly deserves this award.”

Photo: St Swithun’s School student Hongzhou Luan from China, who was recently awarded the Jardine scholarship

Phoebe and her team Willpower, so named in support of the Will Houghton foundation, raised over £6,000 in sponsorship for their two-day endurance event which took place in the vast Portes du Soleil ski area of Morzine in France.

Competing in the endurance challenge against 21 other teams, Willpower skied and snowboarded a cumulative distance of 160.3km, via 47 marked checkpoints along the way. The generosity of the St Swithun’s School community and family friends helped place Phoebe and Willpower amongst the top five fundraising teams.

Phoebe, who was skiing in memory of a close family friend, said “The whole experience was such fun and so enjoyable that I would recommend it to everyone. I am hoping to take part again next year, which will be the tenth annual Alpine Challenge, even though skiing from 8.30am to 5pm for two days straight was very tiring. The Snow-Camp charity does some really important work, and I am proud to have been able to support them.’

Snow-Camp is a charity that supports and empowers inner-city young people, aged 13-21, by using snowsports to provide life-skills sessions, qualifications and vocational training. The money raised will support Snow-Camp’s bid to become a national charity enabling the organisation to work with more people across the UK. This year’s Alpine Challenge event has raised over £50,000.

Photo: St Swithun’s School student Phoebe Sugden back at school after taking part in the Alpine Challenge.

the first all-female group to cross the continent using only their own muscle power. The six-strong team travelled more than 1,000 miles in 62 days, each pulling a sledge of equipment weighing 80kg. St Swithun’s School has been celebrating this inspirational achievement over the last month.

Year 4 pupils took part in a ‘Polar Day’, where pupils discovered the clothing, food and equipment they would need to survive in polar-regions like Antarctica, and had the chance to try on some of the gear themselves. They also learned about the dangers of crevasses, and ended the day by making their very own glaciers from plasticine and cornflour.

St Swithun’s junior school head Rebecca Lyons-Smith said “We are incredibly proud of what Zanna has achieved. She is a true inspiration to everybody at the school. Our students are really enjoying learning about polar-regions, and the challenges that explorers can face”.

Pupils in the upper sixth used the Ice Maiden’s achievements to examine what teamwork coupled with great captaincy can achieve during one of their leadership training days. Sixth form student Somtonna Anyansi said “The story of Zanna’s expedition helped bring to life how the exercises we were doing, such as group debates or building a Lego bridge, can have actual impact in our real life performance. Zanna has demonstrated what we can accomplish by learning to be a good leader, and also a good team player”.

This isn’t the first time that St Swithun’s has had interest in the ice continent. In 1910, the school sponsored Captain Robert F Scott’s ultimately ill-fated Terra Nova expedition, and proudly houses a letter of thanks from Captain Scott acknowledging the donation