Old Tamensians: Old News

This is a collection of previous news items.

2005

Site Developments at Lord Williams. The Governors of Lord Williams's School are pleased to announce that they have been presented with a golden opportunity to develop the sports facilities at Lord Williams's Upper School whilst at the same time providing the resource to develop Thame's provision for the elderly. The Governors were approached by the Oxfordshire Care Partnership which needs to re-develop the Meadowcroft Home for Older People to meet the new legislative requirements for homes for the elderly. In order to re-develop the existing premises it will be necessary to transfer the ownership of a small part of the Lower School Playing Fields in Towersey Road from the Directorate of Learning and Culture to the Oxfordshire County Council Social and Health Care Directorate. This will enable the Oxfordshire Care Partnership to build a new care home that meets all the new specifications for homes. The transfer of the land, which is approximately 0.6 of an acre, will provide the school with the capital receipt to enable it to construct an Astro-turf (all-weather) playing surface on the school's Upper School site. Such a playing facility would be a huge benefit to the school and to community sports clubs as a year-round facility sorely-needed by Thame and the surrounding area.The proposal will require the consent of the Department for Education and Skills as well as the relevant planning permissions for the Home for the Elderly and the all-weather playing surface. The Governors of Lord Williams's School have given their approval for the scheme on the basis that permissions are sought and granted and that the scheme for the Astro-turf can be funded from the transfer of the section of land.Anne Clark, Chair of Governors at Lord Williams's School, said 'This is a great opportunity to provide Thame with two much needed facilities. The corner of playing field in question is an awkward shape and consequently little used by the school. The benefit to Thame of having an all-weather pitch whilst giving the town a state-of-the-art home for the elderly is an opportunity too good to miss. Michael Spencer, Headteacher of Lord Williams's School said, 'This will be a superb addition to local sporting facilities. The school, its partnership schools and the local sporting community will benefit hugely from the provision of an all-weather pitch. It will be a big asset for Thame.'

Thanks to LWA funding, and e-learning credits, fingerprint recognition scanners have now been successfully installed in all of the school libraries. This means that students no longer have to carry library cards around with them, but just have to register for fingerprint recognition in the library. There are many advantages to this system as it allows students to borrow and return books easily, without the need for a library card. It also eliminates the need to charge students a replacement fee should they lose their library card.

The School raised over 12,000 pounds for the tsunami appeal. Also over 300 pounds was raised at December's Carol Concert for breast cancer research.

The new Head of Sixth Form replacing John Fulkes is Kate Sheehan, who had previously set-up the sixth form in Alexandra Park School, Haringey.

Over forty Year 10,11,12 received Duke of Edinburgh Awards at the end of 2004.

Year 9 Syson Speech speech contest was won by Wilber Spears speaking on 'You capitalist pigs - stop telling me what to eat' and Alice Worton 'Should we be allowed to design our babies.'

Just before Christmas sixteen Year 13 students visited The Gambia. School visits to Lisieux and Bonn will be taking place this March.

In sport the U16 Girls football team are through to the last 16 in the ESFA National Girls Cup having beaten Sandown High School from the Isle of Wight 3-1 on Monday evening. The following members of this team have been recently selected for the County squad: Alice Draycott, Katie Stanley, and Caroline Scott. The U18 Boys football team are also through to the last 16 in the ESFA National Cup and they will play Charters School in Ascot. The following boys, who were part of the rugby team that won the County U15 Cup have recently been selected for the County squad: George Butler, Luke Godfrey, Tom Cooke, Alex Woodhouse, Tom Curry. In hockey, Elizabeth Brooks and Theresa Brooks have been selected for County and Ellie Jackson was selected to the National squad. Following the recent District Cross-Country Championships, James Bird was selected to represent Oxfordshire at the Nationals and Ben Diffey to represent the County at the Inter-Counties competition.

The School was delighted to receive a substantial donation to purchase state-of-the-art information technology equipment to support the teaching of maths in the school. Maths Alive is highly interactive software that was originally purchased by the school two years ago along with some interactive whiteboards and projectors. The school was keen to extend the use of the software to benefit more students at the school and asked Lord Williams's Association (LWA) for help.
The parents' association responded positively by giving the school £4,500 raised at a variety of events and prize draws. Head of maths, Richard Taylor, was bowled over by the generosity of the parents' association and said: 'We are absolutely delighted to be able extend the coverage of projectors into more maths rooms in the school. Their installation creates vast opportunities on the internet, through specialist software and resources created by staff in-house. Students find this multi-media approach to learning engaging and exciting."
Representatives of the LWA were invited to see the maths package in action and were amazed to see how maths can be so much fun.
Cecilia Fry, treasurer of the LWA said:
"We all enjoyed seeing the new-style maths lessons and were delighted to be able to help in providing more equipment to extend the facilities across the school."

2004 School News
A record number of 518 examination entries saw the proportion of A and B grades rise to 45 per cent up from last year's high of 38 per cent and the number of passes overall rose to 98 per cent from 96 per cent last year. A total of 71 per cent obtained A to C grade passes.
Will Buggey, 18, studied maths, physics and business studies and received A grades in each of the subjects.
He said: "I went for it this year and am really happy with the results. I am now going to Leeds University to study electronics in September and I am now off to celebrate."
Ruth Farmer, 18, is another who has every reason to be proud after she got A grades in maths, further maths, history and an A grade in AS level physics.
She said: "I am speechless and really happy and excited. I am now going to Bath to study maths."
Matthew Lamb, 18, got three A grades in English language, biology and art and is now set to study architecture at Nottingham University.
He said: "I am ecstatic. I'm off to a barbecue if the weather is good and then a party tonight where I will see all my friends and we can all celebrate together."
Emma Baston, 18, got A grades in maths, biology, chemistry and further maths and is heading to Bristol to study medicine.
She said: "I am tremendously relieved and am now off to celebrate."
Headteacher Michael Spencer congratulated all his students and said the results were a fitting tribute to John Fulkes (JF), the school's former head of sixth form, who died earlier in the year.
He said: "We're delighted for them, their parents and their teachers. They have finished their time here at Lord Williams's School with huge success and I know that JF would have been immensely proud of them and their achievements. It's so sad that he has not been able to share their success. Our hope is that they will be able to move on now to the higher level courses of their choice and go on to achieve great things in the future."

* 81% of Year 11 leavers are going on to some form of higher education.

* Two students have been selected to compete in the British 2004 Young Carpers Championship.

* The Lower School came second in the final of the Formula Schools radio controlled races at Silverstone.

* Plea from Textiles at Lower School. Do you have access to a supply of stuffing, braid, buttons, fabric etc. that could be used by our Textiles students at Lower School? Our current supply has dried up and we are in desperate need! Please contact Lower School Technology on 01844 210510. Thank you. The Technology Team.

We have uploaded a photo taken last summer of the pre-1960s group. There are a number of names missing so please let us know if you can fill in the gaps.

The Lord Williams Festival Chorus has launched their own web-site.

The Spatial Ecology and Land Use unit at Oxford Brookes University have announced they recently obtained a partnership grant from The Royal Society for a project in collaboration with the School seeking to encourage biological identification and recording amongst school children.

Boris Johnson MP, gave a talk to young Politics students in Thame, when he visited the town on Friday February, 11.During his visit to Lord Williams's school, Boris made a speech on the Past and Present of Conservatism, followed by a question and answer session.

Michael Spencer writes: It is with a great mix of feelings that I write to inform you that I shall be retiring from my position as Headteacher of Lord Williams’s School on 31 August, 2005. I feel very privileged to have worked in such a special school. My career in education has spanned 37 years, 17 as Headteacher, and it is true to say that I have enjoyed my time at Lord Williams’s School more than any other period in my career. I do feel that I am working with a hugely talented and committed team of teachers and support staff and a great bunch of young people.

An on-line article on IT used at the School.

The Six Bells (from the Oxford Mail)

"Richard Walker always wanted to run a pub - and what better choice than the one he used to use as a young man in Thame?

He and his wife Claire have taken over the Six Bells in Lower Higher Street, Thame. The pub has just been reopened after a major refurbishment by owners Fullers.

Mr Walker was born and brought up in Thame, where his mother Jenny has a cake decoration business and his grandparents used to run a shop in the High Street."

Prayer Group

A prayer group meets at the School every Monday and can pray at that time for the staff, pupils and alumni of the school.

Please pass on any prayer support/interests to ota@waitrose.com for Bridget to pass to the co-ordinator. Bridget will also send you details if you wish to join the group.

Headington Girl's School Update - We were delighted to hear from some Headingtonians through the Old Tamensian in 2002/3 and pleased to have this opportunity to update you on our activities. We have had a exciting year with a number of very successful events for Headingtonians, including a London Reception at the Oxford and Cambridge Club, two evening lectures in the new Theatre at Headington and, of course, Headingtonians Open Day. With our new database in place, we have been able to help organise some reunions, including a group from 1973, who met in the Leander Club at Henley in October 2003. The Headingtonians Newsletter has also been completely revamped and we would be delighted to send a copy (free of charge) to all Headingtonians who do not receive it currently. Headingtonians are also welcome to attend any of the events held in the new Theatre, which has an extensive programme of concerts, theatre and lectures. Amongst the many highlights this year have been the "Reduced Shakespere Company" and a Masterclass on King Lear by Sir Timothy West. For a Theatre programme or a copy of the Newsletter, please do contact the Development Office vie email (development@headington.org) or phone us on 01865 759191. We would love to hear from you. Alison Parker.

Photographs

Over the next few months, we'll be uploading a series of photographs from the 1970s and 80s. We also hope to produce for sale a CD-ROM of over 200 photos from this period. Look out for more details and see above for the first page of uploads.

School profile

A survey done by the pupils as part of a national competition.

Thame Young People

Find out what's up for Thame's youth.

Lord Williams' School History web-site

This is a dedicated site put together for those studying history at the school.

Art

During March, pupils from Lord Williams School, Thame, worked with the artist, Sophie Layton. Large multi- media sculptures were created based on the historical figures Lord Williams and Queen Elizabeth 1st.

1979 School Photo

Angus Crampton-Smith has kindly uploaded a 1979 school photo. (Did Bullet ever take off those sun glasses? And is he still in Nepal?)

1989 School Photograph

Mark Ashton has also gone to the trouble to upload a school photo for 1989.

"I've uploaded one of the group photos of the 1989 6th form - it's large at 1.6Mb, but I'm on broadband so don't consider it a problem :-)"

Sports Extra Summer 2003: Brendan Davies produced 5 personal athletic bests at the recent English Schools Combined Events Midlands Final. The School lost their recent match against the MCC. Abingdon School beat us in the Oxfordshire Under 14 Cup but the U12s and U17s are in the finals which will be held in September.

LORD Williams's School in Thame has won a national competition that will help children in the Chinnor Resource Unit, one of Oxfordshire's special schools for autism.
The school entered a competition to win £2,000 worth of musical instruments and, having won, has decided to give the prize to the students who need it most.
The instruments provide a bridge between the student and the teacher which creates an opportunity for interaction. Until now, the unit has had to borrow instruments from the main school music department.
Carol Brooks, the music teacher who entered the competition on behalf of the school, is absolutely delighted to have won.
She said: "These children really deserve this prize. To have won such a large number of instruments will really make a significant difference to all concerned."
She continues: "Music can sometimes help with the communication process. The instruments offer a medium or vehicle for musical 'conversations' and self-expression."
The competition was run by Intermusic, one of the UK's leading suppliers of pianos and musical instruments.
Oliver Webb, its head of musical instruments, handed over the instruments, saying: "We have known for a long time that music stimulates a child's brain so they are often more gifted in other academic subjects too. However, I wasn't aware of the impact music can have on teaching and communicating with autistic children and am really pleased that the prize is going to these students." (From the Bucks Herald).

7 November: Foundation lecture ‘Sport & The Media’ November 7th 15:00—16:00 Foundation Centre Conference Room.

7 November: Sixth Form Leavers’ Evening 19:30—21:00. A chance for all of last summers sixth form leavers to receive their exam certificates, and a presentation to prize winners. Takes place in the Upper School Hall.

8 November: Founder's Day, AGM, Lunch, Rugby, Hockey and Netball matches:

10:00 Short Service at St Mary’s (doors open 09:45, service at 10:00. No dress code.)

10:30 Coffee in the Old School (the Boarders' Refectory).

11:00 AGM (upstairs in the Old School - in one of the old dormitories - and open to everyone. Agenda below).

12:15 Luncheon (in the School Hall)**

13:00 Girls’ netball match
14:00 Mixed hockey (Now cancelled).
15:00 Boys’ rugby
16:15 Tea, after the rugby/hockey/netball matches
17:15 John Hampden Trustees meeting

** Lunch costs 9 pounds and cheques should be sent in advance and made payable to John Fulkes. Please post to John Fulkes, Lord Williams Upper School, Oxford Road, Thame, Oxon. OX9 2AQ

This year, a number of OTs from the early 60s all the way through to the late 70s are planning to use the day as a convenient event to hold a reunion.

Photographs

Over the next few months, we'll be uploading a series of photographs from the 1970s and 80s. We also hope to produce for sale a CD-ROM of over 200 photos from this period. Look out for more details.

Spring Lunch 2003

An enjoyable occasion, with people coming from Australia (extending a business trip) and the North of England (travelling down the night before). The majority of people were from the 1970s, there being 2 from 1972 (Ed—myself & Malcolm B ) to one who left in 1978. The 1940s were also very well represented, with a few from 1960s and one from 1950s. The youngest was Bridget Trueman's son (year 11 at LWS) who came to help clear (and eat any left-overs—not many, as extras turned up on the day—excellent).

1979 School Photo

Angus Crampton-Smith has kindly uploaded a 1979 school photo. (Did Bullet ever take off those sun glasses?)

OT Football

The OT Football match was played on 10 April. Unfortunately, the game was abandoned at 1-1 when Tommy Kendall-Smith was badly injured, requiring an ambulance; – his knee ligaments. He is still some weeks away from a full recovery.

Minutes from 10 May Committee Meeting

These can be seen here.

Lord Williams’s Festival Chorus

The Lord Williams's Festival Chorus was founded many years ago, at the initiative of the then Head of Music at the School. Since that time, it has established itself as a well recognised amateur chorus based in Thame, having the real benefits of using school facilites and the involvement of staff. It has proved capable to producing high quality work and has given much pleasure to the community generally, as well as to members. Like all such organisations, however, it has had its ups and downs. In 2002, a new Musical Director, Chris Hood, was appointed, since when the trajectory has been firmly upwards - in membership, quality, range of music, and ambition. It is always difficult for amateur choirs to make ends meet as interesting performances require expensive professional input such as soloists and orchestras. A little extra income can deliver greatly increased flexibilty in what can be undertaken. Consequently, the Chorus has decided to establish an "OT Friends of Lord Williams's Festival Chorus." Membership will cost £25 pa, and Friends will receive advance notice of forthcoming events and will be eligible for 10% discount on performance tickets. They will also receive occasional newsletters, giving information about current developments and plans. The Festival Chorus hopes that O.T.'s will feel inclined to support this initiative, to encourage a Thame based activity with a link to the school, something which appeals to the widest range of types and ages, genuinely a community project. To become a Friend or for more information, please contact Nigel Lewis, tel 01844 343020, fax 0709 228 7144, email nigel@oxfree.com

Towersey Village Festival, from 21st - 25th August 2003, will again host national and international folk, roots and world music performers on a variety of stages for concerts, dances and workshops. Over the past 38 years it has succeeded in raising insurmountable funds for local and national charities and become a major event in the national Festival Calendar.

Every year they are short of accommodation for our artists and staff throughout the Festival period.
The festival is responsible for providing accommodation for the artists and over the year they have built strong relationships with both Oxford Brookes University Campus at Wheatley and Rycotewood College. Although we greatly appreciate the beds both these have to offer we are always short.

The Festival has a small budget to cover costs where appropriate and they are happy to discuss a variety of terms. They are looking at the area immediately surrounding Towersey, but will consider accommodation as far out as Oxford, Aylesbury, Princes Risborough, but of course they would prefer Towersey, Thame, Kingsey and Chinnor.

If you can help, please contact Ross McKinlay at the Festival Office 01629 760345.

Earl and Duchess of Wessex visit the School

On 23 January the Earl and Duchess of Wessex visited the School. The Earl of Wessex presented sixteen pupils with their Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Teachers spoke of their pride in having so many children succeed in gaining their awards, and how delighted they were to have The Earl of Wessex come to present the certificates. On leaving Lord William's School, Their Royal Highnesses walked a short distance to the new Thame Leisure Centre. The centre boasts swimming and fun pools, a state-of-the-art gym, crèche, health suite and dance studio. The Earl and Countess were given an extensive tour of the new facilities, meeting architects, designers and leisure centre staff before seeing the new Jubilee pool. Their Royal Highnesses then visited the sports hall, where they saw demonstrations of basketball skills, and the health suite. Next stop was the newly-refurbished gym. The Earl and Countess stopped to chat with fitness enthusiasts, who explained how some of the machines worked. In the dance studio six young children put on a dance display for the Royal visitors. The Countess then took time to chat to each of the little dancers. After visiting the crèche facility, Their Royal Highnesses unveiled a plaque to officially mark the opening of the centre.

Your Ideas

We're always on the look-out for new ideas which will help us serve you better. Just send an e-mail with your thoughts. Also if you wish to join the Committe please let us know.

Donations

If you have not sent a donation in the past few years, any amount is always welcome to help cover costs. Please contact the Membership Secretary for further details.

e-mail Newsletter

Our postage costs are high and can be reduced if more members can be contacted by e-mail. To date, only 100 out of over 1000 members use the e-mail newsletter facility so if you're on e-mail please let us know. The 2003 Spring newsletter is scheduled for publishing in late February or early March.

Restoration of Lord Williams’ Tomb

Lord Williams’ tomb in St Mary’s church, whilst empty, is nevertheless a fine example of its style, and extremely valuable.Make sure you take a look at it some time - it would be behind glass in a museum.

Rosalyn Gibson treasurer of the Parochial Church Council reports that the repairs have been done to the Lord Williams’ tomb, and the work has been done excellently. Ivor Shrimpton has gone to see, and watched the gold lines being painted on for the final touches. Do go and see the tomb repairs for yourself, on Founders’ Day. Many thanks to our generous donor Graham Thomas who paid for the repairs.

New Boards

New boards OT boards were recently hung in the old refectory, in honour of 100 years of the OT and donated by a very generous OT.

School News

- GIRLS U13 Footie. After sweeping the competition in the South-West away, the U13 Girls team went to Anfield on the weekend of the 17th and 18th of May for the National Finals. Having won their semi-final they were unlucky to lose in the final to Thomas Telford school.

- The School has achieved a very good Ofsted Report following an inspection during November 2002. This can be viewed on the Ofsted web site. (Type Lord Williams into their search engine and you will be taken to the report).

- James Hewitt has been picked to play for the U16 England A side in their matches in April 2003.

- The school achieved a School Achievement Award 2002 for the improvements made in our results over the last 3 years.

- The GCSE results were outstanding last year - 66% were A* -C. 391 A Level examinations were taken with a 93% pass rate. The GNVQ results were also impressive with 100% pass at Intermediate Level.

- The governors have continued to work extremely hard in support of the school under the new leadership of Anne Clark.

- Various events put on by the LWA have raised £5,000 which will go towards the Techno quest Appeal.

- With record numbers exhibiting, the school exhibitions of GCSE, A/S and A Level Art were a great success. Work of Lower School students has also been on display at Wildart, an exhibition of Oxfordshire Schools Art Work at Cotswold Wild Life Park in Burford, and a presentation of Fantasy Shoes in Clark’s in Thame. Year 13 students went to Madrid and Bilbao in October and there have been trips locally to the Pitt Rivers, the Ashmolean and the Cotswold Wildlife Park.

- The School Dance week this year included collaboration with our Partnership Primaries culminating in an extravaganza of performance dance. Over 250 students came together to be involved in this year’s Rock Challenge competitions. Throughout the year various GCSE and A level performances have shown the depth of talent within the school.

- The programme of performances started with the whole school production of Oliver. This received excellent reviews. This was followed by Sixth Form productions of Road, Midsummer Nights Dream and an evening of comic scripted pieces and devised drama, “Love and Marriage”. During the year a number of GCSE and A level performances have shown the high standard of curriculum-based work.

- A hugely successful Singer of the Year Competition was won by Debbie Goldsmith (Upper School) and Nicola Rochford (Lower School).

- Other music events this year have included the Carol service, Whole School Concert, Oliver and a performance at Cuddington Fete of Medieval music.

- Richard and Andrew Harbour in Year 10 were successful in designing an Electronic Christmas in a national competition run by the South East England Development Agency.They were presented with a cheque for £500.00. 3 students awarded Oxford Trust Grants to assist with ‘A’ level major project work. This was based on their close co-operation with an industrial / business contact. In June Year 12 A/S Product Design Students worked with a professional architect / interior designer as part of the Design Canals “Designer in School Week”. FS2000. Year 10 once again participated successfully in this car racing event. Jane Knight reached the Regional Finals of the National Young Engineers Competition with a design for an aid for disabled children to ride ponies.

- Year 11 students participated in Poetry Live in Oxford and trips were taken to see Much ado About Nothing and Hamlet. The Faculty received publicity in the Guardian Educational Supplement for their involvement in the Kings College Formative Assessment Project.

- Numerous students travelled to the First World War Battlefields, Sulgrave Manor, St Albans Abbey, and The Imperial Ward Museum.

- The revived History Society has organised several events this year including lectures from Dr Andy Roadnight and Dr Steve Hindle, a weekend visit to York and a presentation on the 2^nd World War by James Wildsmith (Year 12).

-The History Department website has attracted over 2,400 hits in the last year, including Lord Williams’s Students and teachers from other schools! The department helped to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January by developing lessons for Year 9 students and inviting Holocaust survivors to speak to classes.

- Sophie Robinson (9LGa) was a winner in the Oxford University Science Writing Competition. Laura Daniels (Year 13) achieved a Bronze Medal in the Biology Olympiads.

- Over 100 Year 6 students visited the Science department for a morning to solve the crime of “Who stole the Science Goldfish?”

- UK Mathematics Challenge – Congratulations to all students who have taken part. Senior Challenge Results – Best in School Robin Fairey who achieved Gold along with Chris Schurch. 12 students achieved Silver and 14 achieved Bronze. Altogether 130 pupils received awards in the Intermediate Mathematics Challenge – 14 Gold, 44 Silver and 72 Bronze. Yr 7 – 1 Gold, 14 Silver and 26 Bronze (8 students from the Primary Schools included – achieving 4 Silver and 4 Bronze). Best in Year 8 was Mark Rice with other Year 8’s achieving 3 Gold, 13 Silver and 31 Bronze. 4 Lower School pupils came third out of 32 teams in the UKMT enterprising maths day competition in Oxford and have qualified for the next round in Glasgow. Yr 9 European Kangaroo Challenge students achieved 4 Distinctions and 4 other participants. Jonathon Fairey being the best in Year 9.

- Year 13 Travel & Tourism Fieldtrip to Peak District (November 2001) organised by group as part of their course.

- There are now 15 areas across the school, which contain networked computers. Further expansion and upgrading is planned. On average the computer rooms are used for over 70% of the available time. ICT as a subject has been taught to Year 7 and, next year, this will be extended to Year 8 and AS ICT. Our success has been recognised and reported in a case study www.viglen.co.uk.

- Foreign trips and exchanges took our students to the Moselle Valley, Bonn, Lisieux, Lille and Aachen.

- 17 Students took part in ASDAN Youth Award Scheme. They each did 8 hours of community work over two weeks.

- Vicky Chaplin and Lydia Pope won the Year 9 Syson Speech Competition. Lucy Brassell and Alistair Richards won the Year 8 Syson Final.

- Michael Lumpkin and Harriet Westby won the Year 7 Syson Final.

- 40 of the possible 45 highest points of every country in mainland England were achieved to launch the Sports College Status.

- A sports tour to Cornwall was organised for the U16’s & U15’s netball and rugby.

- The school has continued to run successful teams in a wide range of sports. Notable achievements this year have been the Girls’ U13’s Football Team winning the County Cup and the Year 8 Girls Team won the Rounders Area Tournament. Individual students have continued to perform at a very high level achieving county, regional and international levels.

- 20 students going to 1^st Challenge Trip to Poland. The next World Challenge expedition is swinging into action. 65 Year 11and 12.

- Students are busy raising funds for their trip in Summer 2003 to Zambia and Botswana.

- Mufti Day raised £1,220 for UNICEF. During ACE week our Year 9 students raised £1,000 for Sports Relief.

- Class 7Dro raised £500 for Leukaemia by doing a sponsored all night event at lower school.

- Year 7 have raised over £2,000 for research into children with Leukaemia.

- 14 pupils from Lord Bills’ took part in the national Newsday Competition in March this year, which is run by the Times Educational Supplement (TES). The judges awarded Lord Williams’s School a “Highly Commended” certificate for its publication The Bill Board.

- Connexions Service has begun at Lord Williams’s School. Connexions will bring together existing services working with young people, including the Careers Service, ESW Service, Youth Service, EBD Outreach and others.

- Congratulations to the first group of students to complete the Bronze Award. Next year Bronze will run again and Silver will also be offered.

- Year 11 students set up and ran a TOPLINK Commonwealth Games event for Year 4 students from our partnership primary schools.

- The CPM Dance & Drama Studio opened 10^th July 2002 at our Lower School site. The swimming pool on the Oxford Road site is due for completion November 2002.

- Emma Parr & Caroline Day achieved third position in the British Sports Acrobatics Championships.

- Sam Smith and Eddy Atkins completed the Navigators and General sponsored Three Rivers Race on the Norfolk Broads.

- Alex Jewell, Sam Fitzpatrick & Daniel Gascoyne came 4^th out of 28 teams in the British Heart Foundation Regional Golf Championships in Worcestershire.