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On Saturday 04 July, Speech Day drew to a close a very successful term and year for the pupils and staff of St John's.
The School recognised the achievements of the pupils over the year and said goodbye to the leavers. Prizes were presented to the pupils by the Guest of Honour, Mr Tony Matharu, Chairman of Indian Ocean Disaster Relief.
Speech Day Programme 2009
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This term has seen four School records broken by the pupils of St John’s. The U15 4 x 400m Relay, U20 4 x 100m Relay, U15 400m individual and the U20 110m Hurdles.
On Saturday 02 May at the Guildford Spectrum Stadium, the U20 4 x 100m record was set by Thomas Parry, Kwadwo Sarpong, Christian Dennis and Brynmor Roberts. The boys stormed to new figures of 44.73 seconds.
Not to be outdone the Junior boys set a second U15 4 x 400m record this season. On 16 May at Kingsmeadow Stadium, Myles Nuttall. Oscar Gilroy, Yuriy Mohylnytsky-Ingham and Ben Brooks took the record to 4 minutes and 4 seconds.
Individual successes this term also include Central Surrey School Athletics Association Championships titles for Daniel Pope (U17 1500m steeplechase), Oscar Gilroy (U15 800m), Myles Nuttall (U15 High jump) and Benjamin Brooks (U15 Shot putt and 400m). Daniel and Benjamin have also set School records. Daniel set new figures of 5 minutes 5 seconds for the 1500m steeplechase, whilst Benjamin took over three seconds off the previous record set in 1977 for the U15 400m.
Mr James Kidd, Master in Charge of Athletics said: “It has been a fantastic season so far, I am so proud of all the hard work that boys and girls have put in. It is shaping up to be one of the best seasons for St John’s School”.
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For most 16 year olds, the day before their 17th birthday is spent dreaming of holding their driving licence and getting behind the wheel of a car. Not for Thomas Parry. Instead, the racing he was dreaming about was to his first national title. On Sunday 07 June, Thomas claimed the Welsh Athletics U20 400m hurdles crown in Cardiff, smashing his lifetime best with a time of 55.93 seconds.
Thomas was naturally ecstatic with his win, but the modest schoolboy was quick to thank those around him, "It's an incredible feeling to achieve this after all the hard work. I have to thank my family and coaches for all their hard work and support, it's really helped me get to my current standard.
The win places Thomas firmly at the top of the Welsh national rankings, and he sets his sights on July's English Schools Championships in Sheffield with renewed confidence.
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The audience at the School Summer Concert was privileged to listen to the premier of a new choral work composed by Rhyanne Acott, a Lower Sixth pupil at the School. As part of her AS coursework, Rhyanne composed an unaccompanied piece for the School's Chamber Choir entitled There's Within My Heart A Melody.
"This is an extremely beautiful and reflective piece written for performance in the Lent season, and Rhyanne has done a wonderful job of conveying her wealth of choral performing experience into this work", explains Nicholas Smith, Director of Music. "She had just ten hours to draw all her ideas together and the end result was powerful and very well received by the audience." Rhyanne is also a pupil at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and studies there on Saturdays. She was also the winner of the Solo Girls voice category at the Reigate and Redhill Festival and was asked to perform at the prestigious Festival Concert.
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Upper Sixth Pupils joined other local schools and well known drama groups in the staging of the Sixth Leatherhead Drama Festival at the Leatherhead Theatre. The Pupils staged their Commedia Dell’arte performance called ‘Wish You Were Here’ and were competing for the coveted “Sir Michael Caine Drama Awards” (including Best Play, Best Actor and Best Actress).
Pupils, Mike Allen & Barney Banks were nominated for Best Junior Actor and Ella Benedict was nominated for Best Junior Actress. On the Awards Night, Barney Banks was declared Best Junior Actor for his “outstanding physical and vocal performance”. The pupils were also delighted to be awarded runners up in best Junior Play Category. Congratulations to the whole cast.
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A 77 year old who experienced some of the worst atrocities of the Second World War has been speaking to History students at the School about his experiences. Rudi Oppenheimer, who was sent to Belsen concentration camp as a young boy, visited St John's on Tuesday 19 May 2009. Mr Oppenheimer estimated that he had related his experiences to over 90,000 young people, and this was his 1000th session at a school.
Mr Oppenheimer was born into a Jewish family in Germany in 1931 but spent time in England and the Netherlands before being taken to the concentration camp with thousands of other families. Rudi and his brother largely survived Belsen due to Rudi’s job, which was giving out food. He kept the best for them. At the end of the Second World War Rudi |
Oppenheimer was fourteen years old. He ended the war being nursed out of a typhus-induced coma in a Soviet hospital in Germany. His parents had died in Belsen from malnutrition and typhus; his grandparents had been gassed in Sobibor. Rudi, his older brother Paul, and younger sister Eve, survived. After the war ended, he came to Britain to finish his education.
During the day at St John’s he gave a number of classroom talks to pupils as well as a presentation on his life in the evening.
Head of History at St John’s School, Neil Whitmore, said: “It is always a privilege to welcome back Mr Oppenheimer to St John’s each year. It is a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to have direct contact with someone who was personally involved in perhaps the greatest calamity in history. We are particularly appreciative of his visits and hope he will be able to visit us in the years ahead.”
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Edward Savitt (18) was in the winning England Team of the Independent Schools Football Association XI, competing against Scotland in The a2om Cup, Independent Schools International Challenge Match.
Savitt toured with the squad to Germany at the end of March where he played and scored against German Youth Teams for the prestigious England ISFA. Winning all the matches, the triumphant squad returned to the UK where they were all selected to represent England against Scotland IFSA at Aldershot Training Ground on Saturday 25 April.
The England team beat Scotland 3-0 in The a2om Cup. The match was a fitting climax to the season as many of the players enjoyed the final matches of their schoolboy football careers. The boys came away with an International Cap and The a2om Cup.
Master in Charge of Football, Mr Gregor Macmillan said: ‘Edward has been a prolific goal scorer against the top Independent Schools, has shown great leadership and work ethic for the team, and thoroughly deserves this recognition in being selected for England.'
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The term's final General Studies speaker was Jeremy Gilley, founder of the organisation, Peace One Day. Set up by Jeremy in a bid to see peace around the world - at least for one day a year - his concept has taken him around the world, from the USA to Afghanistan, and seen him meet both worldwide diplomats, like Kofi Annan, and celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Jude Law, who travelled with him to war-torn Afghanistan as part of a mission to bring peace to the area to allow children to be vaccinated.
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The Governing Council of St John’s School, is delighted to announce that from 2010 the School will admit girls as well as boys from the age of 13. Furthermore, flexible arrangements for boarding will be introduced alongside a revised structure of the week.
Girls were first admitted to St John’s School in the Sixth Form in 1989 and have played a full part in the life of the School. Co-education has been a great success, and it is the wish of the Governors and Headmaster to extend this to the lower years as well.
The introduction of full co-education will build upon the high quality education currently offered and promote St John’s as one of the top co-educational schools in the region. Over the last five years St John’s has enjoyed some of the best ever academic results in its long history and the majority of boys and girls achieve their first choice at a top university on leaving.
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The outstanding academic, pastoral and co-curricular strength of the School was highlighted in the 2008 Independent Schools Inspection report – ‘The curriculum both in and away from the classroom is both broad and balanced and provides excellent opportunities for personal development and leadership’.
To support this vision for the future, the Schools facilities will be significantly improved in the short and medium term beginning with a major investment of £5 million in the building of a new teaching block. This development will include purpose-built workshops for Design and Technology, Art Studios, a library and additional classrooms.
Headmaster Nicholas Haddock, who enters his fifth year as Head, reflected: “the introduction of co-education for all ages promotes a better environment for teaching and learning, and promotes equality, diversity and the opportunity to properly reflect the society we are a part of. I view the move to full co-education as an important and necessary step for the School, offering even greater opportunities for our boys and girls. Our ethos has grown from a Christian foundation, we translate our spiritual roots into every day values by which we expect each boy and girl to lead their lives, now, and beyond school. Within this ethos, boys and girls will share the opportunity to develop and explore the vision of what they want to achieve in life”.
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To mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Navy Section and the association between St John’s and HMS Ark Royal, the School was delighted to receive a visit from Captain Clink, Commanding Officer, and fellow Officers of HMS Ark Royal, on Thursday 4 December 2008. A number of Old Boys and previous members of the Naval Section were able to attend the occasion.
Captain Clink inspected the Navy parade and handed out certificates to cadets, before going on to observe senior cadet training and a variety of practical tasks being carried out by junior cadets. To celebrate the anniversary, the Captain cut a commemorative cake, which was enthusiastically devoured by visitors and cadets alike.
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