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

in the woodwind section at the Portsmouth Music Festival. She also won the Karen Cup for the best overall performance in the woodwind category.

The Karen Cup is awarded for the demonstration of musicianship and versatility across a number of classes and genres. Awarding Emma the prize, adjudicator Keith Allen commented that ‘Emma was the most musical throughout. She is very talented and was born to play the alto sax’.

Emma, who is in year 9, is an accomplished pianist, flautist and saxophonist. Her talents have recently been noticed by film director Jane Spencer, who asked Emma to feature on the soundtrack to her next movie, South of Hope Street.

Headmistress of St Swithun’s School, Jane Gandee, said ‘Emma is an immensely talented musician who has charmed us with her performances at school recitals. After all of her hard work in the past year, this success is well deserved.’

section of the National Youth Girls’ Choir where she will receive professional voice coaching from the top vocal teachers in the country, as well as Alexander Technique classes to help posture and breathing.

In her successful bid for selection from amongst the best young singers across the UK, Sophia was helped by the highly dedicated music department at St Swithun’s School. She prepared for the audition, which involved a theory and musicianship test and the performance of two songs, with the aid of her singing teacher, Mr Brian Gordon.

The National Youth Girls’ Choir is made up of the best girl choral singers in the UK aged 10-15. It meets twice each year for intensive residential courses in the spring and summer school holidays, and also for occasional special projects; recent highlights included the performance of live vocals for a screening of The Snowman at the Aldeburgh Christmas Festival. In 2018, the National Youth Girls’ Choir will perform at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham and at Beamish Museum in County Durham. Girls from the choir will also present a special concert at the Royal Albert Hall celebrating the 100^th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

Director of music at St Swithun’s, Mrs YiRu Hall said “NYCGB is a terrific opportunity for Sophia. Performing with other talented and likeminded young people will really take her singing to the next level”.  

Photo: Sophia Vines playing Oliver in the St Swithun’s and Winchester College joint production of Oliver! The musical

movement from Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F major K370. She now goes on to compete in the district final of the competition in Bournemouth next February.

There was excellence all around from the St Swithun’s musicians. 13 year old Vivien Canadine’s trombone performance earned her second place in the instrumental category and pianist Agnes Wong was awarded third. In the vocal category, year 11 student Rosanna Culver rounded off a successful day for the school when she was awarded first place for her renditions of Automne by Gabriel Faure, and Green Finch and Linnet Bird by Steven Sondheim.

Director of Music YiRu Hall commented “I am delighted with the success of our pupils. They all performed extremely well and really enjoyed taking part in the music festival.”

The Winchester Rotary Festival is an opportunity for local young musicians to showcase their talent and gain experience of performing on a public stage. The national final is being held in Edinburgh in May.

Photo: Anna Benton being presented with the Denis Welstead shield by Winchester Deputy Mayor Frank Pearson and Winchester Rotary President Dominic Hiscock

which the two schools have jointly launched, is based on the Three Minute Thesis competition, which is popular on the university circuit with PhD students worldwide.

The new initiative is part of St Swithun’s School’s academic enrichment programme which provides an elevated academic layer for students needing rigorous challenge throughout their school years. At sixth-form, it seeks to equip potential Oxbridge candidates with the critical and creative thinking skills that will help them prepare their applications.

The Personal Statement competition gives students three minutes to convey the key message of their personal statement and to demonstrate how they would like to be perceived in their Oxbridge interview. Without the aid of presentation slides, competitors need to impress their audience and convince them that they are the ideal candidate for their subject of choice.

Following an initial round at St Swithun’s, five girls took on the Cheltenham competitors in the final. Alia, who is applying to study Economics, impressed the judges with the effective structuring of her presentation, her genuine love of and commitment to economics, and her combination of quiet confidence and warm approach in talking to the audience.

Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh from St Swithun’s School, who worked on the development of the competition with Dr Graham Mallard from Cheltenham College said: “All the competitors performed brilliantly in different ways, and it was a superb experience for them all. This competition looks set to grow as there are already ten schools asking to join the event in the next academic year”.

Photograph: St Swithun’s student Alia Morris, joint winner of the Three Minute Personal Statement competition

Successful candidates will have access to dedicated teaching sessions in addition to a reduction in school fees.

In awarding mathematical scholarships, St Swithun’s aims to nurture exceptional young mathematicians who may choose to follow highly mathematical career paths at university and beyond. As the leading mathematical lights of the school, scholars will demonstrate mathematical excellence and intellectual curiosity, will perform exceptionally in competitions and will promote maths as a subject whenever possible.

Mathematical scholarships in both age groups are open to external and internal candidates. At 16+ candidates will be identified through performance in academic papers and an interview.

At 13+, students will be invited to apply based on nomination from their current school. Selection is carried out via an examination paper and an interview. Successful candidates at 13+ who continue to perform well will retain the scholarship throughout their years at school.

Headmistress Jane Gandee said “We have a strong record of promoting able mathematicians at St Swithun’s. The new scholarships will allow more access to our excellent teaching staff and resources and enrich mathematical activities for all students at the school”.

in chemistry, economics, maths and physics. Her extended project, which explored the subject of the political participation of young people in Hong Kong, was also awarded an A*. Her A-level Chinese studies resulted in an A grade from the summer examinations.

Having previously studied at the Po Leung Kuk #1 W.H. Cheung College in the Wong Tai Sin area of Hong Kong, Scarlett joined St Swithun’s school in the lower sixth form in September 2015. During her career at St Swithun’s, Scarlett approached her academic work with energy and commitment, whilst still enjoying extra-curricular opportunities including badminton and archery. She took part in the annual Maths Challenge and played the oboe in school. Scarlett spends more than 200 hours every year as a volunteer, helping at NGOs.

Following receipt of her A-level results, Scarlett has accepted a place at Hong Kong University to study business administration and law from this autumn.

Headmistress of St Swithun’s school, Jane Gandee said “We are immensely proud of Scarlett and her achievements. She has really excelled during her time at St Swithun’s. She deserves her success in the summer and well beyond.”

Photograph: Scarlett Ng who left St Swithun’s School in summer 2017 with top A-level grades