Page 72 - OO_2019

SCHOOL NEWS
The academic year
Lenore Dudman, the School’s Marketing Manager, looks back at individual and group achievements by Oundle pupils in and outside the classroom during the 2018/19 academic year
Marcus Fforde
For the second year running there was a rise in the proportion of top grades awarded at GCSE level, with 59% receiving nine or eight. Seven pupils achieved a clean sweep of nines and nearly 40% of the year group recorded grades of nine to seven. English, Classical Greek and Religious Studies provided the headline results, with over 70% achieving grades nine or eight.
At A level, one fifth of the year group secured the equivalent of straight A grades or better. 46% of pupils were graded A*/A and five pupils achieved straight As.
The prestigious Nicholson Engineering Award has been given to Toby Acheson-Gray (Sc U6) for his work across a number of faculties in Sixth Form.
Arts exhibitors’ awards went to Jake Addo (S U6), Evan Ball (G L6), Mark Bonner (Ldr U6), Alice Hamilton-Charlton (L L6) Alexander Hill (C L6), Sophie Lee (L U6), Gordon Lin (C U6), Lizzie Martin (N U6), Lily-Rose Tebbutt (W U6), Charlie Willis (L U6) and Harun Tekin (S 5).
The junior debators (pictured below) won the Stamford Endowed Schools Oswald Elliot Shield for the third year in succession. In addition, the School was represented at the International Competition for Young Debators, Cambridge and Oxford Unions, Nottingham Schools, the Mace and Uppingham.
The Junior Mather Cup was won by Jack Campbell (F 5) and Jerry Li (F 5), while the Senior Humphreys Gavel went to George Brettle (B U6) and Saul Agar-Ward (B L6).
The Hepburn Competition comprised 320 performances, with Ed Pelham (Sc L6) the winner thanks to a stunning performance of Brahms on the clarinet.
In the House singing competition, Laxton won the part category and Laundimer the unison, but Wyatt were the overall winners.
14 pupils received music diplomas and 18 achieved Grade 8.
Sixth Form pupils (pictured below) collected an impressive clutch of awards in the Science Olympiad. Thomas Reigels (S U6) won gold for Biology; Marcus Fforde (S U6), George Gibson (Ldr U6) and Tom Wise (G U6) for Chemistry; and Tom Aubrey (L 5) and Jack Campbell (F 5) for Physics.
92 Lower Sixth pupils undertook the Extended Project Qualifications, in which they chose a research topic beyond their examined subjects and spent the year independently researching and producing a project.
Marcus Fforde (S U6) struck gold in both the RSC Olympiad and Cambridge University’s Chemistry Challenge to rank among the top 5% of Chemistry pupils in the country. On top of this, he holds a place at Oriel College, Oxford, to read Chemistry.
Yifei Zheng (Sc L6), a leading member of the Oundle School Law Society, was highly commended in the Oxford Legal Reasoning Competition in March and was invited to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to receive his reward. Janna Holtby (Sn L6) (pictured below) lectured to 60 pupils and members of the public on the ‘Chemistry of Light and Colour’. The lecture was an interactive experience (lots of flashes and bangs!).
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019
William Parker-Jennings (Ldr L6) received a Diamond Award in the Isaac Physics Senior Challenge. 79 residential and over 200 day academic trips took place in the 2018/19 academic year. The residential destinations included Costa Rica, New York, Geneva, Silicon Valley and Hamburg.