27th April 2021
Winchester Weekly
Guest editor
Maths and music
Prior to joining the school in 2012, I had spent many years working as a pianist and immediately fell in love with the College; I was amazed by the outstanding level of music performance and the inspirational ways of teaching mathematics. I would never have expected that I would be able to use ancient Greek in lessons of Euclidian geometry or discuss music repertoire and the benefits of practice in my maths lessons. My diverse background was celebrated by our wonderful colleagues and pupils, and I instantly felt a sense of belonging.
I am privileged to share my love for mathematics with local talented primary pupils and grateful to our students for their invaluable help. Through our mentoring programme, we prepare pupils for the Primary Maths Challenge national competition and the International Bonus Round. I am glad we have managed to continue our provision remotely and delighted that so many young pupils were keen to participate online. Last, but not least, the online weekly masterclasses would not have been the same without the outstanding contribution of our recent leaver, Oliver Goodall and current pupil, Rtvik Patel.
Mrs Maria Zampeta, Mathematics don
Messages from the Second Master
Dear Parents
May Exeat
It is very good to have your sons back for the start of term. The exeat, planned pre-COVID-19 in order to align with the Bank Holiday weekend, will commence at 1800 this Saturday and finish at 2115 on Monday. We ask your sons to check whether they are in a school team before confirming their departure time: boys who are in school matches are expected to fulfil their commitments before going home. If your son is not required for a school match he may be collected after lunch.
For the exeat, we will be providing Lateral Flow Devices (LFDs) to all pupils returning home, so that they can self-test before they all return to school on the afternoon of Monday 3 May. You and/or your son will need to complete an electronic form to submit a declaration of the test result before returning to school. An email with a Pupil Unique Identifier for your son and a link to the declaration form will be sent to you and your son before the exeat, and you will receive a reminder on the morning of Monday 3 May. It is important that we adhere to this protocol as this approach will be adopted for the return from Leave-out later in the term and will mean we avoid a staggered return.
Boys who are staying over the exeat will have a variety of different activities to choose from, including attending the first round of the Concerto Competition, an analysis of film scenes with Dr Guymer, a breakfast survival session with the Duncan Louis Natural History Fellow Mr Wright, croquet, board games, and Innovation with Makyth Ventures. There will also be access to Moberly Library, and to supervised sports in the gym and sports hall.
Leave-out
We hope that your sons will be able to enjoy Leave-out with their families, friends or guardians. Each parent will receive a letter which will ask you to state your plans for Leave-out. Boys who are unable to be accommodated away from school over Leave-out can be accommodated here from Friday 28 May until term resumes on Sunday 6 June. The cost per pupil will be £1350.
June Exeat
We are working on the assumption that the school will be closed as normal over the June exeat, which commences at 1305 on Saturday 19 June. Term will resume at 2115 on 21 June.
Saturday’s matches
Government guidelines explain that “spectators are not permitted to attend sporting events taking place on private land, other than adults needed to supervise under-18s that they have a responsibility for or providing care or assistance to a person with disabilities participating in an organised sporting event or activity. They should maintain social distance and not mix with other households.”
Because parents and guardians will be taking responsibility for their sons on Saturday afternoon, they fall into the first category given above and may spectate Saturday’s matches provided that the government protocols regarding numbers within groups and social distancing are observed. While we await the next government announcement on 17th May, this temporary lifting of the current restrictions on Saturday will not be applied to matches played on other days.
With best wishes,
Mr Nicholas Wilks
A message from the Director of Studies
Academic Announcements
V Book and VI Book I - Public Exams
We have now received further guidance from the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and the exam boards (the awarding bodies, including CAIE) and are now in a position to outline in detail the school’s approach to awarding grades.
JCQ guidance can be found here. The main JCQ page is here. CAIE guidance can be found in three key documents: 1, 2 and 3. The main CAIE page is here.
A letter outlining the school’s general approach will be sent to parents on Friday along with a link to the Centre Assessment Policy that will be uploaded onto the school website. Boys have already received an FAQ document that addresses the questions that have been forthcoming since the start of term.
Exams Fees for VI Book 1 and V Book
A number of parents have contacted the bursary regarding the payment of exam entry fees at the end of last term. Entry fees have been levied by the boards for the Summer 2021 exam season – they are non-negotiable but we share the view of parents that they should reflect the fact that the school is undertaking the marking of assessment materials and the majority of the administration that would normally be completed by the examination boards. Last year the examination boards did return a proportion of the exam fees which we then refunded back to parents. We envisage that the same mechanism will be in operation this year but are in contact with the exam boards to establish the likely timescale for this to take place. We will keep parents informed as we receive more information.
Remote Learners
Dons have been pleased to welcome boys back into the classroom over the course of the last week.
Happily, the vast majority of boys have returned to Winchester but remote provision continues to be provided for those boys who are not yet on campus. Given the continuity of education over the course of both lockdown periods, boys are in an excellent position with respect to syllabus coverage. However, dons will be carefully assessing the impact of remote learning on boys in all year groups (undertaking gap analysis) over the course of the term. Boys in JP, MP and VI Book 2 will also be undertaking internal exams later on in the term which will allow any areas of relative weakness to be quickly identified and remedied.
All best wishes,
Dr Tom Thomas
What's on?
A digital version of the school calendar is now available online and can be viewed here. This includes all the activities that, under normal circumstances, parents would be welcome to attend, or key school events of wide interest, such as exams. It contains all the most up to date information, and we hope it will prove to be a useful reference point, particularly as society begins to open up and we can host more parents on site.
In addition, we would like to remind you of the sport fixtures portal, which can be viewed here. This includes more detailed information such as specific match venues, which again will be helpful once parents are allowed to attend as spectators, and team sheets. To view the team sheets, you will need the password: TeamWinColl.
There are links to both the school calendar and sport portal in the footer of the school website for ease of reference.
Sport at Winchester
A New British Rowing Record
During the Easter holiday, Lawrence Hagger (MP, Phil's) completed a 60-minute session on his ergometer and beat the British record. He achieved a distance of 15,662 meters and now holds the British record in the 13 -14 age range.
Lawrence is part of our J15 rowing squad at Winchester. It is a very competitive group within the boat club. Lawrence and his teammates have not been able to attend external events and races due to COVID, so competition on the ergometer has been one of their few outlets to test themselves against the rest of the rowing world. Lawrence chose the 60-minute record as something he wanted to pursue. It is physically and mentally tough to spend 60 minutes on a rowing machine let alone 60 minutes when you are working this hard and maintaining this pace, and therefore this was an incredibly impressive performance.
Science at Winchester
Astonishing performances in the Chemistry Olympiad
Following an astonishing performance in Round One of the Chemistry Olympiad where he achieved a near-perfect score of 84/85, Rtvik Patel (VI Book 1, College) attended Round Two in the holidays and has been selected to represent the UK in the International Chemistry Olympiad.
7,160 students from 666 schools in the UK submitted scripts for the very demanding Round One paper. Eight other Wykehamists achieved Gold Certificates in Round One. Most remarkable of them were Christopher Leung (College) and Paul Apostolides (College) as they are in V Book, taking the paper two years early. While Rtvik won’t be able to go to the host country – this year it’s Japan – he will instead sit the 5-hour theory exam remotely in July.
Matthew Arnold Prize Winners
The winners of the inaugural Headmaster's Matthew Arnold Prize have been announced this week. The competition, which is for a timed VI Book Div essay on a general studies topic, sees the following winners:
First prize: Arthur King (College) “How should The House of Lords be reformed?”
Second prize: Oliver Winter (Furley's) “Did Eve make the right choice?”
Third prize: Jiaqi Cao (Phil's) “What is most likely to bring about the extinction of the human race?”
Highly commended:
George Smedley (Furley's) “Did the Left or the Right win the Twentieth Century?”
Wonjun Lee (Phil's) “What are universities for?"
Stanley Jiang (College) “Was the COVID pandemic preventable?”
Remembering Mrs Victòria Hebron
We are very sorry to let parents know that Mrs Victòria Hebron died peacefully yesterday morning after a short, but well-fought battle with cancer. Victòria joined the College in 1994 as the Curator of the College Treasury, before becoming the school’s Modern Languages Assistant in 2001.
Fiercely intelligent and a proud Catalan, she translated three books: Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Gulliver’s Travels and Samuel Butler's Erewhon. She was also the founding member of the Hispanic Society, where she supported regular trips to the theatre and was instrumental in preparing boys for Oxbridge interviews, particularly in literary analysis. Married to Mr Malcolm Hebron (English don), and mother to daughter Julia, Victòria was known among boys for taking classes in her house over cups of tea while her elderly cat revelled in their attention.
Mindful of Victòria's wish for unostentatious ceremony, candles and a small book for messages have been placed in the Chapel and the Warden’s flag will be flown at half-mast until after the Eucharist on Thursday to mark her passing. She will be sorely missed by staff and boys alike.
'Mrs Hebron was a generous, kind-hearted and respected teacher. She was always willing to push me in speaking Spanish and was eager to see me improve. I particularly enjoyed our exchanges on current affairs, and it was clear that we shared a lot of the same views. We are certainly going to miss her dearly.' William Leung, College, VI Book 1
Reports
Sports report
The past weekend's sports report can be found here.
Mr Mark Burley, Director of Sport
And finally
Parents' General Knowledge Quiz
Following the success of the Parents' Pellicula Pot last term, this term there will be a Parents' General Knowledge quiz and the questions will be set by a selection of dons. It will take place on Thursday 10 June at 7.30pm and will be hosted by current parent, Yuriy Evodokimov.
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