Vol.

118
2015

Vol. 118
2015
Olavian Editor: David Craig
Old Olavian Editor: John Brown
Assistant Editor: Anik Roy

Contents
Contents
Headmasters Introduction
Editorial

3
4
5

School Notes

Staff 2015
Students Work
Prize Day
Sixth Form News
2015 Leavers Destinations

10
17
27
37
44

Clubs and Extra-curricular

49

Maths & ICT

Science
English & Drama
The Library
Chaplaincy
Music
Modern Foreign Languages
Humanities
Sports
Art, Design & Technology

55
60
65
71
73
75
79
87
103
110

Old Olavian

114

From the Headmaster

In an ever increasing international arena we played host
to 20 students from our partner school, La Martinire,
Kolkata and look forward to a return visit during this
academic year. We also hosted 60 students from Beijing
and hope to establish some firmer links with schools in
China this year.
The 2015 Public Examinations showed sparkling
academic accomplishments for our students. At
Advanced level 94% of grades were at A* to B with the
proportion of top grades A* or A increasing to a record
78%. The AS examinations resulted in 88% A/B grades
with 44 students gaining at least 5 A grades. At GCSE
86% of our students grades were at A* or A and they have
been joined by a stunning cohort from other schools so
that the new Year 12 now has 70 students with at least
9 A* grades. In another record, 54 of our leavers have
now taken up places at Cambridge, Oxford or Medical
College, along with others who have commenced courses
at top universities such as Imperial, Bristol, UCL,
Durham, etc.
I invite you to enjoy reading about the extraordinary
array of activities and successes in which our students
have been involved, whether cultural, sporting, scholarly,
international or personal, and my thanks go, once again,
to our Latin Master, Mr Craig, and to Anik Roy, for
skilfully editing this fine magazine.

014-15 proved to be another superb year for the

school. The highlight, reflecting the quality of our
students, came right at the end of the year when, from the
eight Olavian Sixth Formers shortlisted for the Awards
Ceremony, St. Olaves swept the board in the prestigious
new Student of the Year 2015 competition. The judges
- business leaders, government ministers, entrepreneurs
and educationalists - were unanimous in awarding the
star prize and overall title to Jeevan Ravindran, noting
how he epitomises academic excellence alongside many
co-curricular pursuits, including his work leading the
schools Amnesty International group. Four students
were subject winners - Katie Anderson for English,
Edward Parker Humphreys for Business and Society,
Jeevan Ravindran for Modern Languages and David
Van Egghen for Science. Akhil Sonthi was also Highly
Commended for ICT and Computing.

4 Olavian 2015

Aydin na
Headmaster

Editorial
I

hope you enjoy reading and viewing the material

presented in this magazine once again this year. When
a school consistently shines and excels in all areas it
becomes a delight to bring it to the attention of both
Olavians and indeed a wider audience. At no stage has
any department been overlooked but if there are any
omissions they are not by intention. Under the aegis
of the Headmaster and the SLT the school prospers
greatly and the achievements of the pupils guided
by the academic and pastoral teams of the common
room proclaim themselves from the Goddington Lane
rostrum. In this years production I have been assisted by
the brilliant Anik Roy whose quiet persistence and stoic
understanding have soothed the editors nerves when
matters of IT have become just a little too sisyphean.

David Craig
Editor; Head of Classics

Editor - The Olavian

Editor - The Old Olavian

David Craig, Esq.

St. Olaves & St. Saviours Grammar School,
Goddington Lane,
Orpington,
Kent BR6 9SH

John M Brown, Esq.

60 The Lawns,
Rolleston-on-Dove,
Burton-on-Trent,
Staffordshire DE13 9DB

[email protected]

[email protected]
Olavian 2015
2014 5

SCHOOL NOTES 2015

Public examination results
n another excellent year of public examination results,
94% of St Olaves A level grades were at A*/B. It
was particularly pleasing to see the top grades of A*/A
increase to 77% from last years 73%. Almost all of the 55
students who had offers from Oxbridge or Medicine met
the conditions to take up their places. Top performers
with at least

4 A* grades include Olivia Argent, Kush Banga, Susannah

Da Silva, Rebecca Daramola, Chandan Dodeja, Nigel
DSouza, Alastair Haig, Danielle Hasoon, Abhishek
Patel, Weronica Raszewska, Elena Rastorgueva and
Janushanth Sritharan. At AS level results were in line
with last years with 88% of top grades A/B. 44 students
gained at least 5 grade As with top performers Quingwei
Zhang and Jianlun Zheng each gaining 6. At GCSE
84% of students grades were at A*/A, with 52% at the
top grade of A*. Top performer was Richard Decker with
11 A*s. Joshua Davidson, Tomas Gallagher, Chukwunen
Nwuba, Jacob Loveridge and Richard Moulange all
gained at least 10 A*s. I am particularly pleased that 95%
of our boys gained the English Baccalaureate or EBacc.
Almost 70 students joining Year 12 gained at least 9 A*
grades. For the first time over 100 girls joined Year 12.

Student Achievements
he academic year climaxed with a number of other
exceptional achievements.

Tom Wang achieved the highest award (top 0.7%), the

Roentgenium, in the formidable Cambridge Chemistry
Challenge. He has been invited to a residential Chemistry
camp at St Catharines College, Cambridge. Ian Chiang,
Anna Fatunla, Peter Gibbs, Daniel Jenkins and Kenneth
Liu also won Gold Awards.
In the 47th International Chemistry Olympiad 2015,
UK Round 1, Students gained 2 Gold, 5 Silver and 4
Bronze Awards.
In the National Biology Challenge Niko Kristic,
Ishaan Lal, Daniel Maghsoudi, Henry Miller, Hari
Patel, Kameron Swanson and Jeron Thaiparampil were
awarded Gold medals (top 5%); others gained 21 Silver
and 31 Bronze.
In the Junior Mathematical Challenge, our Year 7/8s
gained a record 99 Gold, 87 Silver and 45 Bronze. Of the
11 who qualified for the Junior Mathematical Olympiad
6 Olavian 2015

Charles Anderton and Linus Luu were awarded Gold

medals; George Guest and Matthew Perry gained Silver.
Also, an incredible 52 students will sit the new Junior
Kangaroo paper.
80 students qualified for the follow-on rounds to this
years Intermediate Mathematics Challenge. Of the 12
qualifiers for the Olympiad, Richard Moulange, Alec
Hong, Oliver Bennett and Shachin Pratheepan achieved
Certificates of Distinction (top 25%). In the Kangaroo
competition 20 students achieved a Certificate of Merit.
Swastik Gupta, Thomas Halton, Hari Patel and
Tannay Vankayalapati won a 500 prize in the ICSE
WinAtSchools final.
Celeste Cardew, Leo Henderson, John Power and Conor
Watson won the Churchill Public Speaking competition.
Jack Petchey awards for outstanding achievement:
Isaac Adebekun (role model), Caelan Raju (Athletics),
Adrian Ize-Iyamu (working with children with learning
difficulties), Tomas Gallagher (Fives), Rishil Patel
(environmental awareness and mock elections), and
Abhishek Patel (Natural Sciences Society, Vice Captain
of School and outstanding student).
Jordan Butts digital collage Camelot was chosen from
2000 entries for the RAs A-level Summer Exhibition
Online. He, Matilda Boyer and Luke ODonovan won
the award for Best Original Artwork and Photography
for their journal, ARTicle at the Shine Media Awards.
Year 8 student Matthew Perry has been invited to be part
of the Amplify project, promoted by the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child, to advise the Childrens
Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield OBE, on
projects and policies.
Daniel Shergold received his Chief Scout Gold Award
from the Deputy Mayor of Greenwich.
Jeevan Ravindran was nominated by the Universal Peace
Federation for a Youth Achievement Award Celebrating
Future Leaders for his work with human rights. The
Awards Ceremony took place at the House of Commons.
Edward Parker Humphreys (Business and Society),
Akhil Sonthi (Computing), Jeevan Ravindran (Modern
Languages), Maggie Kan (Mathematics), Daniel
Jenkins (Leadership), Theo Haslam (Sport), David van
Egghen (Science and Engineering) and Katie Anderson

(English) have been shortlisted for the 2015 Student of

the Year Awards.
Jack Cornishs essay was highly commended from
over 2000 entries in the Royal Economics Society
Competition.
Benjamin Fleet took 2 Bronze medals at the Taekwon
Do Federation World Championships.
Having reached the finals of The National Theatre
playwriting competition, Jack Bradfields play Beastly
Plebians, was performed as a rehearsed reading by
professional actors. Peter Debenham, whose play
Drains was long-listed, was also invited to take part
in a playwriting day at The National with professional
playwrights.
Michael Jacobs has been selected in swimming for
the Sainsburys 2015 School Games in Manchester in
September.
New publications include Issue 4 of the Medics Society
Journal and the new Olavian Duolingo Magazine
where it is good to see younger students contributing
to our scholarly Journals and branching out into diverse
languages.

International
number of exciting overseas trips supported our
endeavours to broaden our students international
awareness. Classics students made the annual sojourn
to Greece, taking in Delphi, Olympia, Athens, and the
Mycenaean cities of the Argolid; Geographers had a
fabulous time in Iceland, The land of ice and fire, with
its fantastic waterfalls, spouting geysers, bubbling mud
pools, volcanoes, fast retreating glaciers, Blue Lagoon
and an opportunity to go lava tubing; German students
enjoyed a week in the Middle Rhine region, including
a boat trip, a castle visit and the thrilling rides of
Phantasialand, whilst Spanish students enjoyed mud
bathing, windsurfing and dancing salsa to a favourite
Cuban band at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento in Los
Alczares and Cartagena. The highlight of the summer
for Year 9/10 rugby squads was the Tour to South Africa.
The boys were made extremely welcome, not least in
Langa Township, where they learned about the historical
and current political situation. Other highlights
included being hosted by South African families, visits
to national stadia and, of course, the safari where they
were lucky to see the Big Five. Sixth formers visited the
Pacaya-Samiria national reserve in South America with
Operation Wallacea to assist in the collection of data on
biodiversity of the upper Amazonian rainforest. They
worked with the Cocama Indian community, as well

as university biologists, on transects including habitat,

caimans, dolphins, wading birds, macaws and frogs. As
well as catching colourful frogs, there were also huge
grasshoppers, cockroaches and the much-feared inch
long bullet ants whose sting has been likened to being
shot. Historians and Economists arrived coincidentally
on the 4th July in Washington to enjoy a patriotic
firework display. A lecture at the World Bank was
followed by a moving tour around the black wall of the
Vietnam Memorial and the Martin Luther King Jnr
Memorial. In New York, they enjoyed a cruise around
Manhattan Island, spectacular views from the Empire
State Building and a poignant tour of the pools at the
site of 9/11. 41 students took part in World Challenge
in Croatia, sea Kayaking and mountain trekking in the
Paklenica National Park. Through buying, hauling food
and cooking all the meals they got a real insight into the
fun of backpacking and enjoying life off grid.
An eager group of 19 girls arrived for a week as part
of our British Council Kolkata link. Hosted by our
International Student Ambassadors, they experienced
lessons and presented a colourful assembly about La
Martiniere, with dances from different cultural eras in
Indian history. We look forward to the next leg when our
students visit Kolkata. 56 Beijing students joined us for
a week to get a flavour of life in an English school. They
experienced lessons, a day of sports, a day of creative art
and a day of outdoor pursuits. It was lovely to hear one
of the Chinese girls, proudly sporting an Olaves tie, say
I love this school.

Activities
he two Activities Weeks provide countless
opportunities for our students to get out of the
classroom and do interesting stuff ! The LBB Cycle Team
delivered Bikeability cycle training, ensuring that many
of our pupils have confidence in road position, looking
and signalling; Year 10s immersed themselves in French
language and culture in Normandy, interviewing local
residents and sampling snails and mussels; others saw
the Basilica and bought interesting cheese, sausages,
Nems Chauds, Vietnamese food and even horse-meat in
the beautiful market town of Boulogne. Year 7s enjoyed
camp craft, open lake swimming, rabbit skinning and
survival skills, including building their own shelters
to sleep under the stars, at the annual residential with
The Bushcraft Company at Penshurst Place; Year 10
Geographers went on a fieldtrip to Maidstone, collecting
data to ascertain whether it is possible to identify the
different functional parts of the town. Year 9s visited the
Imperial War Museum at Duxford, using their creative
skills to build simulations of a Bailey Bridge, rocket
launchers and a tank flotation device; they witnessed a
re-enactment of a spectacular WW2 dogfight between

Olavian 2015 7

a Spitfire and a Messerschmitt, with the added bonus of

a visit by Prince William on the same day. On a similar
theme, but from the 69th Floor of the Shard, Year 8s
witnessed Spitfires and Hurricanes roaring across
London, underneath them, on their way to Buckingham
Palace for the Queens 75th anniversary of the Battle of
Britain. In-school activities included a Bake-Off where
boys embraced the challenge of making sabls Bretons
using a recipe in French; a Year 8 drama project that
culminated in superbly characterised performances of
The Three Brothers, The Government Inspector and
The Pied Piper of Hamelin, with former students James
Curling, Jack Bradfield, Fergus Macdonald and Louis
Cokell, and current students Luke Smith and Theodore
Antonov acting as directors; a taste of the French
Revolution, where boys learnt about the storming of
the Bastille and made revolutionary hats called bonnet
phrygien.

for his Masters dissertation; Tom will be continuing his

research at Oxford in the Biochemistry Faculty and has
also been appointed as a lay clerk at Magdalen College.
As a special tribute to the Reverend Andrew McLellan
in his final Communion Service, the Chapel Choir gave
a splendid performance of the Allelujah Chorus from
Handels Messiah. In an interesting assembly on WW1,
we heard letters from the trenches extracts from a
new book, My Dearest, compiled by Aura Hargreaves,
grand-daughter of Old Olavian David Henry Taylor.
Highlights of the Mid-Term Concert included sensitive
solos from Udgama Tyagi on the piano and Sam Jolly
on the Clarinet, with a very impressive premier of Alex
Laus own Piano Sonata No 1. We rounded off the year
with the traditional Chairmans Garden Party where we
were able to thank invited guests from the Governing
Body, the PA, and the staff, for their tremendous work in
supporting the school during this academic year.

Events
ear 7 Induction Day saw our soon-to-be new Year
7s enjoying a taster day at school; team building
exercises, Maths challenges, Games and languages
sessions left them feeling a little more confident about
joining us in September. The new quad was a wellspring
of sunshine, canaps and badinage for our Leavers
Reception, after which, coaches took them to the Ball
at Oakley House for a sumptuous buffet and dancing
to the Take Five Party Band. In Saturday Morning
Computing Club pupils programmed an IQ robot to
respond to commands and perform specific tasks. I was
intrigued to see the diversity of activity taking place
on Empty Classrooms Day, ranging from building
and firing rockets to giving directions in German to a
blindfolded colleague or creating a giant Born Haber
cycle for the formation of Aluminium Oxide. It was a
pleasure to welcome back former Captain of School, Mr
James Goodman, who gave an inspiring address to Prize
winners, staff and proud parents in The Great Hall for
the Lower School Celebration. In perfect weather for
Sports Day, Cure ultimately prevailed over Bingham to
take the House Trophy, with Louis McLean taking the
Junior Victor Ludorum. Annual exhibitions in the Lower
Field Gallery showcased a wide variety of paintings,
drawings, photography and digital work from our GCSE
and A level students. Four members of the Support Staff
completed the 10 mile Pink Ribbon London at Night
charity walk raising funds for Breast Cancer Care. The
PA raised over 7,000 on a magnificent Summer Fun
Day with over 400 attendees and stalls ranging from the
International Food Stall to the jousting inflatable and
infamous BBQ stall. At the Former Choristers Service at
the Queens Chapel of the Savoy I caught up with former
Head Chorister, Tom Dixon who recently graduated In
Biochemistry from St Peters College, Oxford, with a First

Sport
hess, Swimming and Cricket have all seen great
success this term. St Olaves emerged as winners in
the Kent Secondary School Chess Championship, where
Anantha Anilkumar also won the U14 Grand Prix for
the second consecutive year and will represent England
in the World Junior Chess Championship in Greece in
October. Henry Rennolls recently won the Gold in the
Intermediate Boys 100m Freestyle at the ESSA National
Championships; Henry also took the Junior Gold last
year. At the London Youth Games, Michael Jacobs
and Theodore Haslam helped Bromley senior team to
win the swimming trophy for the second year running.
The U15 Cricket squad beat Langley Park to win the
Bromley Cup with superb performance from Captain
Sohayl Ujoodia; the U14s also reached their second Kent
Cup final in 3 years. Well done to Leah Everson and
Jennifer Stevens who represented Kent at the English
Schools Track and Field Championships in Gateshead.
Highlights of the Tennis season saw the U13s win their
pool and then dominate Alleyns in the final of the B
league to win convincingly in both singles and doubles.
The senior Rugby squad travelled to Eastbourne for a
3 day pre-season training camp. The tour culminated in
a trial match against Eastbourne College, where all 36
players were put to the test against a strong College side.

8 Olavian 2015

Duke of Edinburgh
he team was out again with 5 Silver groups walking
from school out to Frant over 3 days, taking in the
weald and East Sussex. Despite the heat and the distance
all completed albeit with some with some spectacular
blisters!

PLASMA-T
he Robotics Festival saw Year 5 students from
local primary schools challenged to create and
manipulate robots to perform tasks, which the winning
team from Chelsfield proved particularly adept at
mastering. Teachers from St Olaves and other schools
attended GeoGebra for Beginners, led by UK software
developer, Mr M Borcherds, learning how to create and
transform geometrical objects. 240 pupils from six local
primary schools participated in our annual Maths and
Science Day. Our guests turned the Science labs into CSI
Orpington for the day, learning all about chromatography
and other analytical techniques - and having a lot of fun
too. They also practised their orienteering and learned
how to prepare and launch rockets.

Old Olavians
or a snapshot of Old Olavian news: astronomer Nick
Woolf visited the UK from Arizona for a screening
of a documentary film about him, entitled: Star Men bringing the universe down to earth; Chris Philp was
elected as Conservative MP for Croydon South; Robbie
Britton won the team Gold medal in the 24-hour world
running championships in Turin; it was a pleasure to host
visits from Mr Stephen Lockwood, Dr Jim Beales, Mr
Richard Haylett, Mr Michael Donovan and Mr Terry
Golding. Former Captain of School, Timothy Munday,
has just graduated from Gonville & Caius College,
Cambridge, with a First in Economics; after completing
his first degree in Economics and Psychology, Colin
Hoddinot will be commencing at Durham University
to study Medicine this Autumn; Laurence Tennant
achieved the highest 2:1 in Cambridge for his English
Degree and is off to teach and study in China; Priyanka
Kulkarni, reading HSPS, also earned a very strong 2:1;
Luke Kweku Abraham graduated with a high First
and has now moved on to postgraduate studies in
Mathematics at St Johns College Cambridge. Kweku
has been honoured with the prestigious Larmor Award,
presented annually by the Master of the College,
Professor Chris Dobson, to students who demonstrate
excellent intellectual qualifications, moral conduct and
practical activities.

Staff Farewells
e said farewell to a number of teaching colleagues
and support staff Miss Laura Cooper, Mr
David Gonsalves, Mr Stephen McNamara, Miss Rachel
Garswood, Mrs Sarah Beard, The Reverend Andrew
McLellan, Mrs Elaine Vago, Mrs Judith Cooke and
Mr Chris Davies. Something of a legend, Chris Davies
retired after 27 years of service to St Olaves.

Olavian 2015 9

6WDIQJ
Chairman of the Governors
S. Hibberdine, Esq., B.Sc., F.R.I.C.S.
Vice-Chairman of the Governors
The Revd Professor P. Galloway,
OBE, JP, PhD, DLitt, FSA

Elected Parent Governors:

Ms J. Cattell
Mrs S. Chaudhary
Elected Staff Governor:
Mrs K.S. Brooker
Local Authority Governor

Foundation Governors
Councillor J. Grainger.
Appointed by the Lord Bishop of Rochester:
Associate Governor St. Olaves Grammar School
The Revd H.P.C. Broadbent, M.A., Dip.Theol.
A. Stoneham, Esq.
R.P. Highmore, Esq., M.A
Ex Officio
Appointed by the Rochester Diocesan Board of Education:
The Revd H.A. Atherton, M.A., M.Th., B.Sc.,
F.G.S., Dip.Ed.

A. na, Esq., B.Mus., BSc., ARCM, FRSA

Clerk to the Governors

The Revd B. McHenry, C.B.E., M.A., B.A.

R. Walters, Esq., M.A., ACA
Appointed by the Chapter of Southwark Cathedral:
N. Grenside, Esq.

Senior Leadership Team

Headmaster

Appointed by the Senate of the University of London:

I. Ketchin, Esq.
Appointed by the St Olaves and St Saviours Schools
Foundation:
M.H. Lovett, Esq., F.C.I.B.
Appointed by the Dulwich Estate:
S. Hibberdine Esq., B.Sc., F.R.I.C.S.
Appointed by Queens Chapel of the Savoy:
The Revd Professor P. Galloway, OBE, JP, PhD,
DLitt, FSA.

10 Olavian 2015

A. na, Esq., B.Mus., BSc., ARCM, FRSA

Deputy Headmaster

M.J. Evans, Esq, BSc, University of Durham

Assistant Headmaster

A. J. Rees, Esq, BSc, University of Bristol

Director of VI Form

D.J. Budds, Esq., M.A., St. Peters College, Oxford

Assistant Staff
R.N. Archer, Esq., B.Ed.(Hons), Loughborough
University
C.E. Davies, Esq., B.A., A.T.D., M.A., Universities
of Wales, Bristol & London
D.M.G. Craig, Esq., B.A., M.Phil., Bristol University & King's College, London University
L.J. Ward, Esq., B.Sc., M.Sc., University of Sussex
& City University
N. Maltman , Esq., M.A., Pembroke College,
Cambridge
Mrs S.L. Beston, M.A., St Catherine's College,
Oxford

Mrs K.A. Hodges, M. Eng., St. Catherines College,

Oxford
M.G. Price, Esq., M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge
Miss P.Vasileva, B.Sc., University of Sussex
Miss M. Delage, Maitrise, Universite de Limoges
Mrs V.E. Watson, B.A., University of Sussex
L.D. Espejo, Esq., M.A., University of St. Andrews
Mrs E.A. Goodman, B.A., University of York

P.E. Holland, Esq., B.Ed.(Hons), Brunel University

Miss R.E. Hawley, B.A., Middlesex University

A.M. Kenward, Esq., B.A.(Ed.)(Hons), University

of Exeter

Miss A. Wilkie, M.A., B.A., University of Warwick

& Goldsmiths College, London University

D. Bowden, Esq., B.A., University of Lancaster

G. Buckley, Esq., B.Sc., University of Sheffield

Mrs. R. Maxwell, B.A., University of Manchester

Miss S.L. Heraghty, B.A., Loughborough University

Mrs M.T. Morinan, B.A., B.Sc.,M.Sc.,M.R.S.C.

National University of Ireland & Open University.
Ms C.E. Marwood, B.Sc., The Open University;
L.R.A.M., Dip. R.A.M.
Miss M.F. Sullivan, B.A., Westfield College,
London University

T.A McCurrach, Esq., MMath, Magdalen College,

Oxford

Ms. S.K. Wilcox, B.A., Goldsmiths College,

London University

Dr. K.I. Steel, B.A., PhD, Oxford & University of

Southampton

Mrs J.M.Cooke, B.Sc., University of Wales.

Mrs H. McPartland, B.Sc., Bristol University

Mrs.P.Garton, B.Sc., University of Kent.

Mrs J. Upsdell, B.A., University of Surrey

J.R. White, Esq., B.Sc., University of Bath

Mrs J.M. Munday, M.A., Cambridge

I.M. Sanderson, Esq., B.Sc. University College of

Rhodesia, London University
D.R. Shilling, Esq., M.Cam., Bournemouth and
Poole College

Dr. J.Bradley, B.Sc., Ph.D. Kings College & Royal

Free School of Medicine, London University

Mrs S.L. Beard, B.A., University of East Anglia

Mrs C.Johnson, B.Sc., University of Nottingham

A. Lake, Esq., B.A., University of Nottingham

Mrs D.E.Lewis, B.Sc., University of Portsmouth

Ms L.G. Dunlop, B.A., University of Sussex

Ms G.C. Gardiner, M.A., Newnham College,

Cambridge

R.C. Cliff, Esq., M.A. (Cantab)

Mrs E.J.Kite, B.Sc., B.A., University of Birmingham

& The Open University
Ms. B. Onifade, B.Sc., Ph.D. University of Central
England
Mrs J.S. Penny, B.Sc., Royal Holloway College,
London University

J.B. Davis, Esq., B.Sc. (Cardiff )

J.A. Greenwood, Esq., B.Sc., University of Bradford

Miss R. Garswood, B.A. (Exeter)

W. Haines, Esq., B.A. (Hons), M.Sc. (Manchester)
Miss M. Lawrence, B.A. (Hons) (Cantab), MEng
(Cantab) M.A. (Cantab)

Olavian 2015 11

Dr A. Sidhu, B.Sc. (UCL), M.Sc., (Exeter), Ph.D.

(Warwick)
Dr J.N. Stewart, B.Sc. Hons (University of Glasgow), Ph.D. (Heriot-Watt)
M. Acheson, Esq., M.Phys. (Manchester)
A.K.J. Carroll, Esq., M.A. (Cantab), M.A. (London)
Miss L. Cooper, B.A. (Oxon)
Miss P.J. Doorbar, B.A. (Warwick), M.A. (School of
Oriental and African Studies)
Miss D. Farr, B.A. (UCL)
D. Gonsalves, Esq., B.A. (Sussex), M.A. (Sussex)
Miss S. Lands, B.A. (Hons) (Ravensbourne College
of Design and Communication)
Mrs J. Morrell, B.Sc. (Reading)
Mrs A.E. Roberts, B.Sc. (London)
R.O.P. Ryan, Esq., B.A. (Macalester College), M.Sc.
(Florida State University)
Mrs S. Saul, B.Sc. (S. India), M.Sc., (S. India)
Miss S. Westley, B. Mus., (Trinity College of Music)
LLRAM, PGDip (Royal Academy of Music)
Miss K.A. Zwanziger, M.A. (University of Vienna)

12 Olavian 2015

Valete - July 2015

The Reverend Andrew McClellan
Dapper, double-breasted suit
wearer, polyglottal, fellow
auctioneer, ex-banker, sage,
confidante, teacher, fan of Led
Zeppelin, deliverer of the very
best sermons and a Christian
whose belief s are adhesive and
persuasive. This is how I see
Andrew McClellan, but to all
these qualities which are akin to
Homeric epithets I could add
organiser of Christian fellowship weekends at Carroty
Wood, calmer of the timorous, a man who enjoys a
challenge but above all a wonderful man. This school
has benefitted hugely from the presence of Andrew
in assembly, at Holy Communion, at the schools
remembrance service, in the confirming of his pupils,
in his visits to Spain and New York and above all in
his goodness. By jingo Andrew has goodness and very
comforting it is too. This exceptional and delightful man
will be missed whole heatedly. All who have known him
feel blessed.
Sarah Beard
Sarah Beard left St. Olaves
after 3 years to take up the
position of Head of History
at her alma mater, Coloma
Girls School. Sarah joined the
History department in 2012,
she also served as an effective
Head of Year, first to her selfstyled, Year of Champions in
Years 8/9 and later to Year 7 in
2014-15. Sarah was an excellent practitioner achieving
incredibly strong performance with her exam classes, she
will only continue to grow as a teacher and will be sorely
at St. Olaves.
Rachel Garswood.
Rachels stay has been all too
brief but her contribution to the
school has been large. She has
taught geography throughout
the school at the very highest
level of delivery and has been an
excellent year seven form tutor.
Naturally she has accompanied
the department on its fieldtrips

but she has also been instrumental in setting up links with

schools overseas under the aegis of the headmaster. Inter
alia there have been visits to India to forge relationships
with La Martiniere School Calcutta, and a school in the
Netherlands. The common room will miss her greatly
and wish her the very best at her new school Newstead
Wood.
Judith Cooke
Judith has been a much
admired member of the
mathematics department for
many years. She has taught
brilliantly at every level from
year seven right through
to the upper sixth. There is
following her at all times the
spectre of reason and common
sense. Sitting next to her at
break time or a lunch one
immediately realises that she is perfectly splendid and
completely someone whom one could trust and admire.
She is in the best possible sense a woman whose head is
well and truly screwed on the right way. Once out of the
school gate maths will have been left behind and she will
be leading a very interesting life. She plays tennis, loves
her streamed music, her activity holidays and above all
her family. She will be hugely missed by all the common
room for her humour, wit and nous.
David Gonsalves
David Gonsalves left the
History
department
in
July 2015, having joined
in September 2014. David
will be missed by staff and
students alike. His enthusiasm
as a teacher was infectious. He
particularly enjoyed teaching
KS3 pupils and can be held
partly responsible for the large
number of Year 9s studying
GCSE History. Having spent
the academic year commuting from his house near
Faversham David sadly took the decision to move to a
school closer to home and joined St. Edmunds School,
Canterbury.

Olavian 2015 13

Elaine Vago
Elaine joined the schools
finance department in January
2007 where her industry,
sense of humour and sartorial
elegance made an immediate
impact. A woman of great
charm and charisma she was
possessed of both a sense of
humour and nous so rarely
coupled today. She was in
essence a woman whose
understanding of the real world was profound. Her
abilities to see through the complexities of finance and
budgets supported and enhanced any school trip in which
she was involved. Her efficiency and calm demeanour
gave those of us who were running the trips the balm
that all would be well whether in countries overseas or
here in Britain. She was a friend and a colleague who will
be dearly missed.
Sandra Vaughan
Sandra Vaughan played a
pivotal part in the well being
of the school for many years.
There was no task to which she
could not turn her hand. At
times she was supporting
students with their learning
and at other times she
was playing a crucial role in
the Sixth Form library where
she was the most able of assistants. She helped with a
great range of crucial activities involving the support
of the Sixth Formers. She was an administrator of the

14 Olavian 2015

very highest order. She was always the most charming,

benevolent and beautifully presented of colleagues whose
charisma was much enjoyed through out the school both
by students and colleagues alike. She and her wonderful
sense of humour will be greatly missed.
Chris Davies
Chris Davies served the school
with distinction for twenty six
years both as Head of Art,
School Governor and at one
time Head of IT. Christopher
was an outstanding teacher
throughout his long career at
this school where not only did
he nurture the artistic skills
of his pupils across a whole
range of media but was also
an impeccable Head of Year
and form tutor. He was without doubt the voice of
reason and moderation.As with all the staff at the school
he gave of his time freely and contributed to successful
hockey teams through his judicious coaching, but he also
took frequent art trips abroad and accompanied many of
the history department trips to Normandy and Belgium.
Christopher is a very clever man indeed whose delightful
company enriched the conversation at all times. He also
became the school archivist and put on some brilliant
shows of material from the World Wars. His tremendous
legacy among many other things will be the proliferation
of art work throughout the school. He will be greatly
missed.

National Competitions
Salvete - September 2015
David Asafu-Adjaye
David Asafu-Adjaye, who
has been appointed under
the School Direct Training
Scheme,
was
educated
at St Olaves Grammar
School and went on to
Brunel University where he
gained a BSc in Financial
Mathematics. David is a
part-time drum and bass
tutor and professional session musician. In his role as
Assistant Music Director of Ealing Christian Centre,
he has provided personal music tuition for both children
and adults and has put together music workshops for
church musicians across London. David is also a keen
sportsman and works as a Youth Club Volunteer helper.
Rhiannon Beach
Miss Rhiannon Beach, joins
us as an NQT. Rhiannon
was educated at Calder High
School and went on to the
University of Leeds where she
gained a BSc in Geography
and Geology.
Rhiannon
completed a PGCE in
Secondary Geography at
the Institute of Education
which included a placement at St Olaves Grammar
School. Rhiannon is an accomplished pianist and
ballroom/modern dancing enthusiast, having achieved
Gold Bar II Standard. She is also a Royal Geographical
Society Ambassador and a Member of the Geographical
Association. Other hobbies include film editing, baking,
social networking and travelling.
Jennifer Clift
Miss Jennifer Clift, also
an NQT, was educated
at Altrincham Grammar
School for Girls and went
on to Durham University
where she gained a Degree in
History. Jennifer undertook
a PGCE in Secondary
History at the University
of Cambridge. Jennifer is
an accomplished swimmer and sportswoman, playing
hockey to county level. She enjoys both listening to and
participating in musical events and has achieved Grade

8 on the piano. Jennifer is a volunteer Parish Church

Administrator and is keen to become involved with
Duke of Edinburgh expeditions.
Stephanie Difford
Miss Stephanie Difford has
also been appointed under
the School Direct Training
Scheme.
Stephanie was
educated at Walthamstow
Hall School for Girls and
went on to Queen Mary
University
of
London
where she gained a Bsc in
Biochemistry. She enjoys
being involved with extra-curricular activities such as
Drama, skiing and Judo, including coaching younger
students.
Simon Holleran
Mr Simon Holleran, also an
NQT, was educated at St
Olaves Grammar School and
went on to Imperial College
London where he gained
an MEng in Chemical
Engineering. Simon then
undertook a PGCE at the
University of Cambridge.
Simon is an accomplished
linguist and holds a Test of Proficiency in Korean Level 4
(equivalent to B2 in CEFR). He is also a keen marathon
runner.
Paul Keown
Father Paul Keown, who
joins St Olaves Grammar
School as part-time School
Chaplain, is the Rector of the
United Benefice of All Saints,
Footscray and St James,
North Cray. He attended
the University of Wales,
Swansea, where he gained a
BA in English and Medieval
Studies, followed by a PGCE. He then completed a
Bth in Theology from the University of Oxford. Father
Paul holds a Licentiate Diploma in Acting and Theatre
Studies from the LGSM and has 22 years experience
working in television, regional and West End Theatre.

Olavian 2015 15

Scott Li

David Vazquez

Mr Scott Li was educated

at
Riddlesdown
High
School before joining the
Sixth Form at St Olaves
Grammar School. He then
went on to the University of
Warwick where he gained
a BSc in Mathematics.
Scott completed a PGCE
in Mathematics at the
University of Oxford and is keen to extend this to an MSc
in Learning and Teaching. Scott has been a member of
Blackheath and Bromley Harriers for track events and
also enjoys badminton and skiing. He has been involved
with Bronze and Silver Duke of Edinburgh expeditions
and the organisation of trips cross Asia and Europe.
He has a keen interest in languages and has taught
himself Beginner Cantonese (colloquial) and Beginner
Traditional Chinese (written). Other interests include
oriental culture, origami and cooking.

Mr David Vazquez was

educated at Tiffin School for
Boys and went on to gain a
BSc in Social Science (with
Geography and Economics)
from the Open University.
He then gained an MSc in
Economic
Development
and Innovation at the
Universidad de Santiago de
Compostela. David completed a PGCE in Modern
Languages at the Institute of Education. David speaks
fluent Spanish and Galician; he also speaks French,
Portuguese and Italian. David enjoys swimming, table
tennis, football and hiking and is keen to become
involved with the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme
and World Challenge.

Matthew Twose
Mr Matthew Twose has
also been appointed under
the School Direct Training
Scheme.
Matthew was
educated at St Olaves
Grammar School and went
on to the University of
Nottingham where he gained
a MEng in Mechanical
Engineering. He then spent
a year in industry where he was able to apply his technical
engineering knowledge in a commercial and corporate
setting. Matthew enjoys sport and music and is keen to
participate in extra-curricular activities.

16 Olavian 2015

Jonathon Very
Mr Jonathon Very, also
an NQT, was educated at
Sir Joseph Williamsons
Mathematical School and
went on to the University of
Cambridge where he gained
a BA in Natural Sciences and
MSci in Systems Biology.
He then undertook a PGCE
at Canterbury Christ Church
University. Jonathon enjoys computer programming and
is fluent in Java, Clojure and Arduino microcontroller
programming systems. He holds Bronze, Silver and
Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards and was the President
of the Cambridge Biological Society.

Students Work

Students Work
This years creative work section reaches out to various different subjects within the school,
showing individual/group excellence within them. It is our hope that all readers will find
something to interest them within this section containing illustrations from the Art exhibition
and works from English, Music and Economics. It is, unfortunately, as ever, impossible to
include works from every subject that submitted pieces, but, with the continued presence of the
new school journals, including the Olavian Academic Journal under the patronage of Mr Budds,
we remain sure that such articles will not be lost to people as a result of not being printed here.
Rage
By Joseph Barradell 7L

The Swan
By James ODaly 8C
A sapphire pool, golden summer
Vermillion sky, emerald plains
Nature spills with colour.

This feeling is a wasp, trapped in a jar.

This grotesque duckling, grey and dull

Epitomises what is wrong with this world
A tiny head and a massive beak.
All the other ducks follow their orders
This juvenile, this delinquent
Loiters alone, aloof.

Its music is loud and out of tune. Random keys are

pounded.
It leaves a black blanket as dark as can be, covering the
earth, absorbing all happiness.

The Butterfly flutters, the mockingbird sings

The magpie hordes its diamond ring
All fear the eagle king.
What does this cygnet have?
No friends, No family
He is alone, he has nothing

A level artwork

18 Olavian 2015

A tornado, ripping up a city. Leaving death and

destruction wherever it goes.

It all ends when you return the deed. The deed that made
you like this.

The rising gap between rich and poor

is not just bad for society, it is bad for
growth Discuss.
By Jack Cornish
In a 2013 speech, President Obama described inequality
as the defining challenge of our time, and he is not
alone in this view. This month ( June 2015), Christine
Lagarde, the head of the IMF, spoke at length about the
dangers of rising income inequality, in light of a study
recently published by the organisation. But why are they
so worried? In OECD countries, the gap between rich
and poor is at its highest for 30 years, with the richest
10% earning over 9 times more than the poorest 10%,
up from 7 times in the 1980s (Cingano 2014). From
a societal perspective, these figures are damning
such division can only lead to widespread unrest and
political instability, not hallmarks of a successful nation.
However, these figures do not tell the whole story
they only account for the bottom and top 10%, not the
distribution of wealth throughout society as a whole. In
order to examine this, we must use the Gini coefficient,
the most popular measure of income inequality. Created
by Italian statistician Corrado Gini in 1912, the Gini
coefficient uses 0 to represent a society where everyone
earns the same, and 1 to represent a society where one
person earns all the money, and is a very technically
sound way of measuring income inequality across a
population. Since 1980, The US Gini has increased from
0.34 to 0.38, while Chinas has risen further from 0.3 to
0.4 (Economist 2011), and the UK has seen an increase
from 0.25 to 0.34 (IFS 2013), demonstrating the rise in
income inequality across a range of economies according
to the Gini coefficient. This is further displayed in
Figure 1, which shows the Gini coefficient for OECD
countries in 1985 compared to 2011, with the vast
majority of countries seeing an increase. This data serves
to show a clear trend of rising income inequality, which
in turn could have wide ranging economic repercussions.
Although income inequality is almost universally
accepted as a societal problem, there remains some
debate amongst economists as to whether it is harmful
or beneficial to economic growth. This paper aims to
come to a conclusion on the macroeconomic impact of
income inequality, by first exploring the large academic
literature that exists on the subject, and then examining
multiple empirical studies, before making appropriate
policy suggestions.
Among a large theoretical literature, there is strong
support for the idea that income inequality is indeed
bad for growth. Notable among these is the idea of
endogenous fiscal policy, or redistribution (Cingano
2014).This theory stems from the idea that political power
is usually more evenly distributed than economic power,
meaning that in an unequal society, the economically
disadvantaged will push for the redistribution of

Figure 1

resources by the government, and the more the unequal

the society (the greater the income inequality), the
greater the demand for redistribution will be. In turn,
redistribution will likely involve an increase in taxes on
the wealthy and a decrease in subsidies for businesses,
removing incentives to work and to invest, ultimately
culminating in a fall in growth. However, while this
sounds reasonable in theory, it has been widely refuted
by empirical studies, particularly a report by the IMF
in 2014. The report used detailed statistical analysis to
conclude that generally redistribution is pro-growth,
probably due to an increase in the wealth of the poor
allowing for increased investment in human capital
and increasing social mobility, except in a few extreme
cases. This means that if income inequality does have a
negative impact on growth, it is not due to endogenous
fiscal policy.
Perhaps the most convincing reason that the gap
between rich and poor would be bad for growth is
known as human capital accumulation theory, first
coined by Galor and Zeira in 1993. The theory explores
the impact of income inequality on the ability of
lower income brackets to invest in human capital due
to imperfections in financial markets, and has led to
extensive research into the effects of income inequality
on social mobility and thus the efficiency of economies.
In imperfect financial markets, the poor cannot borrow
form the rich to achieve an efficient level of investment
in human capital. This means that as incomes become
more unequal, a growing number of the low income
population cannot afford to invest in human capital
such as university education despite the high marginal
returns. As a result of this, higher income inequality can
lead to lower productivity across the economy as those
on lower incomes decrease their investment in human
capital. In addition to this, a large literature exists which
suggests that the divide between rich and poor could
cause a fall in occupational mobility within the economy
due to this fall in investment in training, meaning that
the economies workers are distributed inefficiently, with
some sectors harbouring large unemployment while
others see labour shortages, with a net fall in growth.

Olavian 2015 19

Recent studies have suggested an intriguing relationship

between income inequality, financial liberalisation and
financial crises (Kuhmof and Others 2012). As income
inequality rises, a likely government response is to
liberalise financial markets, giving the poor and middle
classes access to cheap credit to support their living
standards despite their stagnating real incomes. Although
this may temporarily prevent a fall in consumption, it
will lead to a large rise in domestic debt levels, and a
fall in consumption in the longer term. This in itself has
major implications for growth not only will a fall in
aggregate demand through consumption lower growth,
the increased reliance on financial markets will likely
push investors towards financial rather than capital
assets due to higher returns, with a negative impact on
aggregate supply. Past this, unsustainably high household
indebtedness has been pointed to as a major factor behind
the 2008 financial crisis, meaning there is a worrying link
between income inequality and the boom and bust cycle.
Inequality leads to unsustainable borrowing as a result
of financial liberalisation, resulting in huge debt among
the poor and middle class and eventually financial crises,
which are incredibly damaging for growth.
Rising income inequality has also been linked to a rise
in social and political instability, decreasing business and
consumer confidence and thus investment within the
economy (Barro 2008). It is theorised that inequality
can lead to a surge of radical political thought, perhaps
visible in the recent UK election, where people started
to stray from the traditional big two, with the Scots
placing their faith in the SNP and over 10% of the
population voting for the relatively radical UKIP in
other words, inequality inspires a lust for change, and
change is usually promised by the more obscure parts of
the political spectrum. In a country with such divided
voting and the parties that one would expect to run a
stable economy (in the UKs case, the Conservatives and
Labour) seeing a decrease in influence, it is reasonable to
assume that some investors may be put off, leading to a
fall in growth.
However, there are also sound theoretical arguments
that imply the rising gap between rich and poor is
good for growth, or at least not detrimental. Some
investigations into optimum labour models have
suggested that inequality provides an incentive to take
risks, invest and work productively for those on low
incomes, as there is such a large reward for success
due to the disproportionately high incomes of the rich
(Lazear 1981). An example of this is that in an unequal
society, highly educated people earn disproportionately
more compared to how much more educated they
are. This provides more of an incentive for people to
invest in higher education, thus potentially increasing
the productivity of the workforce. In this way, income
inequality can be seen as good for economic growth.
20 Olavian 2015

Furthermore, especially in developing countries, income

inequality may be necessary in order to provide a few
individuals with the means to start businesses and gain a
good education (Barro 2000). In the presence of financial
market imperfections, the concentration of wealth allows
for the necessary level of investment to gain full return
on education or from a business, giving these individual
agents an opportunity to fuel growth and lead the
economy forward.
There is also a suggestion that the prosperity of the rich
can benefit society as a whole not quite trickle-down
as this is unlikely to increase the incomes of the poor,
but could benefit macroeconomic performance. The
rich are far more likely to invest in capital than those
on low incomes, partially due to their higher incomes
and also due to their propensity to own businesses rather
than work for them. It could therefore be argued that
an increase in the incomes of the rich would lead to a
rise in investment, causing an increase in output and thus
growth therefore increased concentration of wealth
among already high earners could be good for growth.
It is clear that there is contradictory theory in terms
of this relationship, while there is a strong case to be
made that income inequality is bad for growth, leading
academics have also provided feasible explanations that
sympathise with the opposite view. It is necessary then
to look to empirical evidence to determine whether
income inequality is good or bad for growth. There have
been a range of studies using large data sets that seek
to explore this area, and we will focus on recent data
by using papers from large organisations, the OECD
and IMF. One of the most comprehensive studies to
quantify the relationship between income inequality and
growth was by the OECD in 2014, which focused on
OECD nations, which it had access to a huge bank of
data for. The OECD used advanced statistical analysis,
which accounted for external shocks, to examine the
relationship between a change in income inequality
and the next five years of growth (as the effects of the
change would be medium to long term). They found a
strong negative correlation between income inequality
and growth a fall in inequality by one point on the
Gini Index would increase growth by 0.8% across the
next five years, clearly supporting the idea that rising
income inequality is bad for growth. The relationship can
clearly be seen in the figure below, where the top of the
counterfactual bar shows the potential growth without
income inequality, and the diamond shows the actual rate
of growth. Although a few OECD countries like Spain
and Ireland would have seen lower growth without a
rich/poor divide, the vast majority lost out due to income
inequality, a damning realisation for supporters of trickle
down policies. One interesting finding of the study was
that the negative impact on growth mainly stemmed
from changes in low incomes, namely the bottom 40% of

earners. It was the stagnation of their earnings that was

causing problems not the rich and super rich racing
away. This points to the importance of human capital
accumulation theory as the transmission mechanism
through which income inequality affects growth, as this
is the most prominent theory that shows slow rising
incomes of the bottom 40% impacting growth. This has
interesting implications for policy decisions, which will
be discussed later.

Figure 2: Estimated consequences of changes in

inequality on cumulative per capita GDP growth
(1990-2010)

This month, the IMF also published a large study

investigating the consequences of income inequality.
They not only found that a rise in the Gini coefficient had
a negative impact on growth, but discovered interesting
trends in income distribution. It was found that if the
incomes of the richest 20% were increased by 1%, growth
fell by 0.08% over the next five years. On the other hand,
if the incomes of the poorest 20% were increased by 1%,
growth was 0.38% higher across five years. This not only
shows inequality is bad for growth, but also crushes the
argument for trickle-down economics, showing that
making the rich richer doesnt benefit society as a whole,
but damages it. It also suggests that improving income
inequality and negating its effects on growth can be as
simple as a minor redistribution of wealth, something to
consider in terms of policy.
Two recent empirical studies by two of the planets
largest economic organisations agree that the rising gap
between rich and poor is indeed bad for growth this
is conclusive. However, this is not the only conclusion
we can draw from the studies. It is clear that the poorest
40% of society with stagnating incomes is the main
culprit negatively impacting growth. Furthermore, it is
also clear that the redistribution of wealth is generally
good for growth, not bad as first thought, while rising
incomes of the rich only worsen the situation. From
this, we can begin to suggest policy that will not only
make our society more equal, but benefit macroeconomic
performance.

access to apprenticeships and other vocational programs,

as well as improving the quality of education in general
would be good initial steps to counteract the below
optimum investment in human capital due to inequality
that is the main drag on growth, by creating more
equal opportunities for young people and improving
productivity among low income earners. Furthermore,
labour market policy is also key improving job search
schemes and establishing a strong welfare system for the
unemployed as well as improving employment protection
and setting a good minimum wage for the employed
should improve incomes of the bottom 40% and limit
future wage suppression as has been seen in the last 20
years, reducing inequality as well as giving low income
earners the funds to invest in human capital. As rising
incomes at the top of society have been shown as bad for
growth, and the redistribution of wealth good, financing
these policies would most likely be achieved through
a focus on high income earners. Some combination of
fiercer progressive taxation, the closing of tax loopholes
and perhaps a mansion tax on expensive property should
be adequate to finance changes that would not only make
our society more equal, but a richer one too.
However, these policy decisions should not be rushed.
Redistribution data remains limited, and is only
focused on changes in taxes and subsidies, not the
more varied means of reducing inequality cited in our
policy considerations. As a result, evidence on income
redistribution in particular may not be strong enough
to justify these radical actions. Instead, it is urgent that
further data collection and research is taken exploring
the macroeconomic effects of redistribution, in order
to allow the issue of rising income inequality to be
combatted in an effective manner.
Income inequality is a problem, and not just a societal
one its a drag on the economy. So even if the moral
argument against an increasingly divided society was
ignored, there is now a convincing macroeconomic one.
Clearly, action needs to be taken.

Policy clearly needs to target the bottom 40% of earners,

and education should be a cornerstone of this. Removing
financial barriers to higher education and improving
Olavian 2015 21

Reply to farmer
By

been noticed before. This has been the role of storytelling

throughout history, from the very first recorded story,
The Epic of Gilgamesh, to our contemporary works.

Dear Robert,
I want to thank you for apologising for your imprudent
action that led to the destruction of my house. It is
certainly very laudable of you in taking time to expiate
for what has occurred when others would not have given
it a second thought; however, one fact remains invariable:
you destroyed my home. Under normal circumstances,
having your home demolished would be devastating
enough yet having the prospect of enduring a long, cold
winter hang over your every thought is excruciating.
Despite my nest not being the most extravagant or
resplendent, it did cost me hours of arduous labour to
construct. You must endeavour to comprehend the
fact that I am currently completely out of options. My
previous home as you well know was decimated by your
plough whilst winter is approach too abruptly for me
to inaugurate the construction of another nest. Out in
the open, I am totally susceptible to the harshness of the
weather that the change of season engenders.
Unfortunately, I am now compelled to turn to my last
resort. I would have the courtesy to tell you what my
plan is but I suspect you would be likely to disapprove of
it so the details will be omitted. This is neither my first
choice nor yours even though you are the only one at a
disadvantage if this situation actually occurs. In gratitude
to your apology I will try to limit my family in not eating
all your corn during our sojourn but as you said yourself,
we maun live.

Stories dont have to be fiction, although slightly

embellishing stories is often a result of telling them.
The quote states that we tell ourselves stories in order
to live, which can be interpreted in different ways. It
is either the act of making life more interesting, which
helps us live, or directly how stories allow us to make
sense of the world around us the rest of Joan Didions
quote implies the latter. We look for the sermon in the
suicide is how she expresses the human condition in
very few words. If we see a mass shooting or a suicide
mentioned on the news, immediately most jump to
conclusions and try to join dots - dots that might not
actually have a link. We interpret what we see, select the
most workable of multiple choices suggests a possible
selfishness in storytelling, as we try to find the set of
ideas and principles that fit our interpretation of the
world. This perfectly aligns with how the different media
outlets have different political outlooks, as different
writers and editors have their set of workable ideas
and likeminded people often gravitate together. The fact
that storytelling can bring together people, and express
ideas and emotions that wouldnt be otherwise, is surely
a case for the power and value of storytelling.

We tell ourselves stories in order to

live. Make a case for the power/value of
storytelling or narrative
By Thomas Macovich 13E

People around the world have read this full quote, and
a very good summary of it comes from a blogger who
writes a diary online (thehouseilivein.me). My personal
bookend to Ms. Didions observation is that I read in
the hope, maybe even in the faith, that I will find a
writer who will not necessarily explain my life, but share
it. That, my friends, is why we tell storieswhich is to
say, the declaration of our very existence. It suggests
an inherent need in humans to understand their world
and explore it, yet everyones world is ever so slightly
different so finding someone who can explain your
life is impossible. Having your story told, however, could
be argued as the declaration of our very existence. The
slight hint of narcissism in everyone results in this want
for our lives to be shared, so perhaps this is what led to
people forming tribes, towns and now cities. If we are
around as many people as possible, surely the chance of
our story being told is higher as well as the number of
stories we can hear. In this sense, stories may have been
pivotal in the formation of society as we know it today.

Since the first group of humans gathered around the

brand new campfire, regaling each other with tales of
their days hunt, stories have been a fundamental part
of society and humanitys development. For people who
happily go about their daily lives, stories are conversation
pieces and food for thought. For people struggling with
day to day life, stories are their escape. For everyone,
stories express ideas and new feelings that may not have

The value of storytelling is in its power to keep us

sane, as without it wed be constantly overwhelmed by
the world around us. This view is shared by a Nathan
Bransford, who is also a blogger. Life is too complicated
to hold in your head and relationships are too immense
and multi-faceted to easily comprehend. So we write
and tell stories to make sense of our relationships and
existence. A novel can capture more than we can readily

For your generosity which is needed for my plan to work

I am willing to put this incident behind us. I hope that
your winter would be as enjoyable as mine and wish you
all the best.
Yours sincerely,
The Mouse

22 Olavian 2015

contemplate, and an author can, brick by brick, build

a world that can illuminate and give meaning to some
part of the full tapestry of our lives and relationships.
While a long quote, it raises an interesting point that we
need multiple stories to make sense of our world. Certain
novels, films, series and so on can illuminate and give
meaning to a small segment of our whole being, which
when brought together can perhaps explain as much of
our lives as possible. Following this logic, people may
have the one goal of having their lives explained, which
inevitably results in many unfulfilled lives in the past. We
group together in order to help each other towards this
goal, sharing experiences and thoughts to further our
understanding of ourselves. This may be why if someone
is left isolated for a length of time they begin to lose
their grasp on reality humans are often called social
creatures and this appears to be much more important
than we often think.
There are a few countries and regions today where we can
still see the effect stories have on humans in this primal
way, such as warzones and their inhabitants. For people
without homes or food, as humanity was a few thousand
years ago Reynold Price, a former Duke University
lecturer, noted that storytelling was second in necessity
apparently after nourishment and before love and
shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost
none in silence This does appear to be true, as whatever
the situation a good story can change someones day.
Whether it makes them happy or more melancholy, a
story can act as a small aid in testing times. It may be
the glimpse into someone elses life, and the inevitable
comparison with your own, that results in this incredible
power behind storytelling, or perhaps how this opens up
an opportunity to share a story of your own (which is
potentially everyones common goal).

This human instinct to tell and gain stories has been

looked into both by writers and scientists, mostly around
the idea of memories and our perception of the world.
Some have said that the original ideas of the world being
created of five elements were essentially stories made
by humans to make sense of the events around them.
This intertwining of reality and stories has been integral
to humanitys progress, and yet this power might not
be solely a good thing. While storytelling has helped
establish society as already mentioned, it also has the
potential to hinder us. The reason everyone has a different
outlook on life can be put down to the narrative that
goes along with their day. A more introverted person
may have a somewhat downplayed narrative, resulting in
a self perpetuating cycle of average things happening
as another blogger, Scott H Young, put it to a certain
extent, I feel our identity becomes inseparable from the
story we keep repeating. Is it possible that we are all
characters in a story of our own making? This is certainly
possible, as everyone has an image theyve created of
themselves perhaps for different social situations. This
can cause problems, as Young describes, because if the
narrative of your life isnt one where the protagonist
triumphs in the end, I can imagine why it would be
difficult to change.
Storytelling has been a fundamental building block for
society, and a stepping stone for humanitys progress.
This is likely down to our natural instincts to share and
hear stories, to help make sense of our own lives and
get ourselves known. As social animals, humans thrive
around a good story and have done for millennia with
the billions of humans that have ever been all as the
character in their own story. We tell stories to survive,
because our lives ARE the story and if the story ends,
we might too.

Olavian 2015 23

Under Pressure
By Hector Yu
Mikhail
You didnt get long to think between the constant flow
of refugees at the supply lorry and the memos going
to and from Sofia, and often the only time Lieutenant
Mikhail Angelo found he could do so was when he
running errands between guard posts. But even then,
his thoughts were drawn by the stench and rot and
suffering around him. However, today he was so plagued
by something else that he didnt even stop to tell the
peacekeepers to clean out the rat infestation or to supply
drinking water that wasnt some shade of brown. The
suspending of refugee entrance into the country denied
everything he had spent his life working on, in this camp
and before. It didnt matter to the officials what fate met
the people trapped beyond the border, because that was
safely beyond their concern, but it mattered to him. And
the reports hed been hearing worried him greatly; they
reminded him of another time and place, of radio reports
from his childhood in Belgrade, of the government that
left his family to die.
Theres been an alert, Lieutenant.

Tarik
Tarik Al-Kameka had escaped ethnic cleansing, hadnt
eaten in days, and now his daughter was at deaths
door, even as he arrived at salvations. He stumbled up
behind some men on the dusty crest who were rattling
the gate. There were white men behind it, conversing
with animated gestures, which provided the only clue
under the ruckus that they were talking at all. But why
where they talking, when there was so little time? Was
something wrong? There must be a delay. But he couldnt
afford a delay. Allah Almighty, hed promised her, if it
was the last thing he did. Tarik began to plough through
arguing couples and crying children.
A megaphone cut off two hundred different conversations
to inform them in a language they didnt understand
about something else they couldnt understand. One
word, however, was understood: Closed! a man cried at
his wife, They are closed!
As the crowd started up again, Tarik was pushed out of
it, where he fell weakly to his knees and stared towards
Edirne over the horizon, where so many had died. He
could have been praying to Mecca. Desperate now, he
had to something, so he reached inside his coat to find a
desperate mans tools.

The voice snapped him out of his reverie. What is it? It

came out a little more harshly than hed meant.

Mikhail

Weve got a couple of hundred fleeing from Edirne.

Two klicks south-east and headed straight for us. Their
condition is serious.

An explosion lit up the horizon. Then another. Mikhail

was ten again, watching the distant pretty lights. His
parents were out late at work.

Well, dont that just beat all.

A rattling alarm pounded out an alert as peacekeepers
scrambled to their posts at the perimeter fence, and a
few minutes later, all were stationed at the gate, grim and
silent with the news theyd be giving the approaching
refugees.
You know the consequences for our country
economically, Governor. We simply cannot afford to
harbour anymore Syrians.
Mikhail now despised the Secretary-General for even
more than usual - a man of his position should not hold,
or at the very least hide, such views.
And do you know the consequences for the Syrians,
General? Any of them still alive will be hunted for ethnic
cleansing, starve, or die of exposure at our very gates.
The radio cut off as a sign of the Generals
acknowledgement.

24 Olavian 2015

phone call is the last time hell hear his mothers voice,
though he wont know until hours afterward.

But this time he knew what the lights meant, this time
he could do something. But he also knew what doing
something meant - that was insubordination.
The visions are sucked away as a gunshot breaks the
vacuum of his thoughts. The crowd parts, screaming. And
in its midst, a wild-eyed man waves a gun at a guard. His
decision had been made for him.
Open the gates.
Under Pressure Satellite Autobiography
Ladies and gentlemen of the tribunal, I ask you, who
is right? A people who wish for order, but are willing to
massacre thousands to achieve it? A people caught up in a
desperate search for freedom, who tear away the stability
of others to find it? An international organisation that
strives to bring peace for two bloody years, during which
thousands die, including my own parents, hundreds of
thousands are displaced, and a nation wiped off the map?
I began my search for the answer years ago, and the story
Im about to share with you all is about how I started it.

He wouldnt have picked it out if he hadnt been looking.

A shadow flitting across the blackboard, sleek and
silent. I sometimes imagine how it must have been in
the cockpit. Heavy breaths sucked through a mask, the
world flashing past beneath you at several times the
speed of sound. Frantic radio chatter, a garbled order,
then the flick of a switch. To the boy, a black form glides
steadily toward the distant city lights. Its ribcage opens,
and a falling shadow dropping steadily becomes visible.
Suddenly, he sees many, like rocks sinking into the
murky depths of the night. And as the tail of the shadow
disappears into a cloud, the first of the citys lights flare.
He hears the distant rumble of thunder. The explosions
reflect themselves weakly in the kitchen window and the
boys eyes. The fire eventually dies to a soft flickering as
the citys lights shut down, block by block.
But the fire ignited in the boys heart never dies down.
It is what keeps him going as he sits on his stool by the
window, hours after the last of the distant fires is put
out, as he waits for his parents to come home. It is what
drives him to find answers to the needless bloodshed.
And it is what teaches him there is no right in war, only
who is left.
That was the speech I gave the UN inquest into my
insubordination. They discharged me, of course - you cant
have every camp governor acting like some do-gooder
vigilante. Honourably though, that was what always
confused me. Maybe they had some sense of decency, or
just a sense of humour.

It begins on the outskirts of Belgrade, with a ten year

old boy. Winters icy grip is as firm as ever and a clear
blackboard sky stretches across the heavens. Bright
pinpricks of light are stenciled into it. The boy picks out
the forms of Orion the Hunter and Pegasus the Winged
Horse from his seat by the kitchen window, but his
favourite is the Moon. Its how he imagines the Earth
was before humans, so peaceful. Earth has been very
busy lately.
He picks up the phone - its his mother phoning to say
shell be back late. Mother and father work at the embassy.
Theyve been very busy since bad people damaged some
buildings in the city. Life has been lonely since school
stopped. The reality he knows is slowly leaving - some
of his friends were expelled, some of his teachers fired.
Father says they were bad people, mother says they were
just Albanians. They were just friends to the boy. At a
silent dinner table, father had said hed heard reports that
werent on the radio, that war is coming. Mother got very
angry after that. Theyd left early in the morning. The
Olavian 2015 25

An A-level composition by Oscar Ridout

26 Olavian 2015

Prize Day

Prize Day
Prize Day Speech by the Headmaster
our Royal Highness Princess Helen, Your Excellency,
Chairman, proud parents, students, colleagues; it
is a pleasure to welcome you to this celebration of the
achievements of our senior students as we reflect on the
world of education and another excellent year.

Mapping out a sense of direction for a school is no

minor challenge given the constant changes and
constraints foisted upon us. The landscape ahead is
already dominated by two external factors over which
we have little control: curriculum/examination changes
and the seemingly endless funding reductions. From the
numerous HT meetings which I attend it has become
clear to me that we are already well ahead of most in
terms of our planning and preparations for curriculum
change, both at GCSE and A level. Thanks to generous
support from parents and a number of successful bids
like the PLASMA-T and SCHOLA projects, we have
survived the funding pressures of the last 3 years, even
managing to build 2 stunning new science labs; and, you
may rest assured that nothing will derail the relentless
pursuit of scholarship and excellence here at St Olaves.
This is a time of considerable pressure for young people,
both socially and academically. We need to build on our
excellent values system to guide our students carefully
through the safe use of the relentlessly growing world
of electronic communications and social media, which
bring both positive influences, as well as potential
dangers.
This is also a time of considerable political pressure on
schools like ours to find ways of enabling more children to
take advantage of a selective education and, in particular,
to champion greater upward mobility for youngsters
from areas of social disadvantage. The challenge of how
to achieve this is substantial. Such children often achieve
less well at Primary school and may not have the same
access to positive educational influences and aspirations
from their families and communities. However, this is
an important challenge and one that we should embrace
with enthusiasm.
The scholarship agenda continues to go from strength
to strength, with impressive articles published in the
many student journals, high quality EPQ, HPQ & LPQ
projects, play scripts and musical compositions. Where
else would you find a Natural Sciences Society Journal,
researched, written and edited entirely by the students,
with fascinating articles such as: Saturns moons,
28 Olavian 2015

Autoclave sterilisation, the RuBISCO enzyme and the

secret of tortoiseshell felines? Our new 3-year KS4 will
provide further opportunities for students to become
self-directing scholars and to research areas of personal
interest with passion and curiosity.
As we played host to 21 visitors from our partner school
La Martiniere, Kolkata, it was a pleasure to see more
outlets for, and celebrations of, the growing cultural
diversity in the school. Our new team of International
Student Ambassadors will be seeking to add to our
portfolio of British Council links, more countries with
different perspectives, perhaps in Africa, Asia or the
Middle East.
Having a good understanding of global issues in a rapidly
changing world, and developing a positive vision for what
the future holds, is the part that I find really exciting. The
21st century is going to be amazing, so much so that
there will be changes we cannot even imagine today.
And what better springboard from which to set out on
a remarkable voyage of discovery into this unknown,
than an education at one of the nations most prestigious
Grammar schools, within the context of London, the
worlds leading 21st century city.
So what might this future look like? Perhaps, the hardest
of questions to answer, given the exponential rate of
technological development. I did a bit of crystal ball
gazing last year and still believe that bio-mathematics
will have profound implications for society, health,
food, sustainability and communications. A relatively
short time after HG Wells was ridiculed when he wrote
about men travelling to the moon, we are now seriously
considering manned missions to Mars. As I watch
Sci-Fi films like Cyborg, Terminator, Lucy, ExMachina I
become even more convinced that bio-robotics will be the
trillion dollar Industrial Revolution of the 21st century.
My view was strengthened by recent news articles, one
on the use of stem cells in neurone growth; one on a
company that has now reduced the cost of a mechanical
robotic hand to as little as 2,000; another on a research
team who, after growing a new rat limb from host cells
injected into a framework, are progressing to primates as
the next step towards humans. It will be important that
we, as educators, at least try to keep up to date, share in
the excitement of what lies ahead and equip our students
with the best possible start for this adventure.
At the same time it becomes ever more important that
we try to help our students to think about what our race

is doing to the planet.

All is not well socially. The accident of birth means
that millions find themselves born into poverty, famine
or war-torn regions. Such desperate situations lead to
desperate measures, as we see in the increasing numbers
of migrants heading for a better life in Europe. How
should we respond to this and set an example to our
young people? Build more fences to protect fortress
Britain, or take a lead from my heroine, Mrs Merkel, rise
above our lamentable lack of leadership and compassion,
welcome the weary travellers with kindness and share
some of our wealth with them?
All is not right politically. Why do young men and
women abandon an apparently privileged life in countries
like ours to join the ranks of apparently barbaric regimes
like Isis? Perhaps the old politics of the West need to
be rethought. And so, as educators then, it is vital that,
at the same time as inculcating a sense of scientific
adventure, we continue to underpin the education of our
children with solid values so that they can make sound
judgements; and, whilst some might win the next Nobel
prize for robotics, others might take the prize for peace
and become leaders of a better political world order.
Our students have, of course, been excelling in academic
achievements the likes of which few schools can boast.
In another excellent year of public examination results,
94% of A level grades were at A*/B. It was particularly
pleasing to see the top grades of A*/A increase to 77%
from last years 73%. All but 1 of the 55 students who had
offers from Oxbridge or Medicine met the conditions to
take up their places. Our top performers included Elena
Rastorgueva with 5A*s and a place at Corpus Christi,
Cambridge, for Engineering; and Kush Banga with 4A*s
plus 2S (outstanding) grades in the fiendishly difficult
Cambridge STEP Mathematics entrance papers; Kush
will also take up a place at Cambridge, to read, not
surprisingly, Mathematics.
At GCSE 84% of our students grades were at A*/A,
with 52% at the top grade of A*. Top performer was
Richard Decker with 11 A*s and 75 students gained at
least 9 A*/A grades. I was particularly pleased that 95%
of our boys gained the EBacc. They join an illustrious
new year 12 where nearly 70 of the students have at least
9 GCSE A* grades.
And so, we shall now hear with great pride, about the
many successes of our senior students: from Gold medals
in Mathematics and Science Olympiads; and playreadings at the National Theatre to the rugby tour of S.
Africa and Operation Wallacea in Peru. I am delighted
to welcome HRH Princess Helen as our guest speaker
today and look forward to hearing about some of her
fascinating experiences. May I thank all of my colleagues

for the commitment and inspiration they give to our

students; our Chairman and governors for their service
to the school; and you the parents for your aspirations for
your children and for your generous financial support on
which the school now depends. As I look at the portraits
of some of my predecessors, I remain, Chairman,
deeply honoured and humbled to lead this remarkable
establishment in its 454th year as one of the nations
foremost Grammar Schools.
Prize Day Speech by Director of Sixth
Form, David Budds
hairman, Your Royal Highness, Ladies and
Gentlemen,

In his scathing critique of the Victorian education

system, Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens wrote movingly of
the blighted aspirations of a generation of impoverished
and disadvantaged pupils with the following words:
Dreams are the bright creatures of poem and legend,
who sport on earth in the night season, and melt away in
the first beam of the sun, which lights grim care and stern
reality on their daily pilgrimage through the world.
How far we have come. How very different, thankfully,
are the plights of our own Olavian students, whose
dreams and aspirations are, thanks to their magnificent
work, so tangibly close to realisation.
As you have already heard it has been an excellent year
academically for the Sixth Form with a remarkably
impressive set of results both at A2 and AS. All of our
students are bright; most of them shine and some of
them are positively incandescent. Whilst the aggregates
are indisputably superb, as always they are only the sum
of the incredible efforts of individual students. Tonight
we celebrate the personal endeavours, triumphs and
sheer hard work and determination on which those
aggregates are based, not to mention the incredible
range of other contributions which our remarkable Sixth
Formers have made to the school and the potent legacy
of scholarly excellence and unrelenting aspiration which
they leave in their wake. To our prize winners, your
school is proud of you and we can only imagine the pride
which your families will feel in reflecting on your various
achievements this evening.
How these superlative young people fit it all in, goodness
alone knows, but our Sixth Formers also found time to
get involved in a huge range of co-curricular activities.
As seems to happen each year, my greatest challenge in
preparing this speech was deciding what to leave out, as
there is so very much which has been remarkable. You
will forgive me then for being selective in what I say now;
if I were to enumerate and celebrate every remarkable
thing our Sixth Formers have done, none of us would be
home before midnight.
Olavian 2015 29

In addition to their strong A-Level results, 36 Year 13

students completed their Extended Project Qualification
and gave highly accomplished and cogent presentations
of their 6000 word dissertations. EPQ topics were
astonishingly diverse and challenging, ranging from
Is Shakespeare still our contemporary? to the role of
wind tunnels, computational fluid dynamics and acoustic
research in shaping the design of modern commercial
aircraft. All EPQ candidates were subjected to rigorous
questioning from the floor and the students rose to the
challenge with exemplary Olavian erudition and aplomb.
Other academic achievements beyond the mainstream
A-Level curriculum were abundant, with highlights
including Akhil Sonthi of Year 12 coming in the top
5 nationally of the AS Challenge strand of the British
Physics Olympiad, Kush Banga and Olivia Argent
being awarded gold medals in the first round of the
International Chemistry Olympiad and Abhishek Patel
and Eamon Hassan achieving gold medals in the first
round of the British Biology Olympiad. Such prestigious
awards are not given lightly.
In sport, the first XV rugby seasons highlight was
reaching the last 32 in the Natwest Vase with notable
victories against Gravesend Grammar School, Hayes
and the Anglo-European School. Under the strong
captaincy of Joshua Searby, the season began strongly
with victories over Colfes and Ravens Wood and a
strong finish saw impressive wins against Skinners and
local rivals Langley Park. In rugby sevens, St Olaves
came second in the national sevens pool. After a pivotal
mid-season epiphany, the first XI football team proved a
powerhouse force to be reckoned with, achieving striking
wins over the Priory and Christ the King in order to
land a mid-table finish in the North Kent Division One.
Chloe Daley, Michelle Ruas, Lucie Edwards and Velvet
Dibley proved inspirational leaders of the Netball A
and B teams and under the captaincy of Freddie Luff,
our hockey squad went from strength to strength. All
of our captains are commended and all are thanked
for the legacy of inspiration and excellence which they
leave behind. The captains were supported by a very
dedicated team of sports prefects who also consistently
set the highest standards of aspiration and support for
our younger students. No less impressive than the team
efforts and the captaincies and prefectures which relate to
them are the achievements in more individual pursuits,
which include Theo Haslams representation of England
East in the School Games in Manchester where he came
first in the 50m freestyle. This placed Theo 3rd nationally
in his age group for the 50m and 100m freestyle. Molly
Haynes was awarded the Keighley Mayes Trophy for
Perseverance and Endeavour at the National Inter
County Swimming competition. In fencing, for the
fourth year in succession, Adam Whitelaw has qualified
to represent his country and has fenced for Great Britains
under-17 team in Bonn and Copenhagen this year.
30 Olavian 2015

Aside from sport, the Sixth Form have enjoyed many

other proud achievements. Drama has continued to
flourish at the school with Year 13 taking prominent
roles throughout their time in the Sixth Form at events
including a stunning performance of Lionel Barts
Oliver where the comic exuberance of Peter Debenhams
Mr Bumble was powerfully counterpointed by the
simmering fury of Robert Pattinsons Bill Sykes and
the poignant warmth and pathos of Alicia Harriss
Nancy. Robert was no less impressively terrifying and
engaging as Dionysus in Daniel Finucanes outstanding
production of Eurpides Bacchae. More intimate
productions of The History Boys and Twelfth Night
staged in the school chapel, were no less affecting, and
the direction of Matthew Roberts, Adrian LaMoury and
Jack Bradfield elicited superb performances from their
talented casts, demonstrating their directorial vision,
nuance and panache. Standout performers other than
those already named in the year group have included
Sam Edwards, Haniel Whitmore, Joseph Cordery, Sarah
Cronk, Jon Leech, Pamela Tickell, Max Lewthwaite,
Emily McPherson-Smith, Sam Luker Brown and Jack,
Daniel and Matthew themselves to name but some, and
whether as individual performers or as part of a cohesive
and focused ensemble cast, it has been a real pleasure
to see them continue to blossom after such strong
performances in Elling, A View from the Bridge and
the Shakespeare Trilogy the previous year. The dramatic
talents of our students are not limited to performance;
three of our students, Michaela James, Peter Debenham
and Jack Bradfield made it onto the long-list for the
National Theatre playwriting competition, with Jacks
play also being shortlisted and receiving a rehearsed
reading at the National. Not content with this, Jack was
also a runner up in the annual Oxonian Reviews national
poetry competition with his poem Musee de Cluny.
Musically, Sixth Formers have played prominent parts in
the Christmas and Easter concerts as well as through their
involvement in the wide range of orchestras, ensembles
and choirs both as leaders and as active participators and
none more so this year than the inimitable and endlessly
versatile Lucy Morrell. Her magnificent arrangements,
voluntaries and medleys for the organ in the vast
majority of assemblies throughout the last school year
were astonishing and she took a great pride in the fact
that we never heard the same piece of music from her
more than once. Her work on the O-Factor this year,
including writing arrangements for all 8 performed
items for an in-house O-Factor band, was even given
the seal of approval by none other than Peter Leigh
himself; this being the highest possible accolade from
the greatest authority on the subject imaginable. No less
gratefully received in this event was the excellent and
inspirational work of Holly Lewis in choreographing the
year 7 and 8 forms. Her broader contributions to dance
at the school in a variety of initiatives and productions

have been consistently of the highest standard. Our

annual Art exhibition held at the end of the summer
term again showed what intensely talented and creative
students we have. The time, thought and effort put
into the many pieces on display was an outstanding
achievement and it came as no surprise that so talented
a cohort received national recognition this year at the
Shine Media awards where their second edition of the
Art Societys Journal, called ARTicle, won the award
for Best Original Artwork and Photography and was
highly commended in the Best cover and Best Magazine
categories. Principal Editors Matilda Boyer, Jordan Butt
and Luke ODonovan are warmly commended on this
fantastic and richly-deserved achievement. I would urge
you to seek out a copy of this publication if you have not
already seen one.
Senior students once again found themselves organising
a wide range of events this year with probably the
highlight for most being Festival, with afternoon lessons
being suspended in order that students could enjoy the
various stalls run by form groups, and events such as
firm Festival favourites including Just a Minute and
the student-produced Teachers Video. As well as
Festival, Cabaret was held on the Friday night before
the end of the Christmas term, and this event showcased
the wide range of talent in the Sixth Form including a
great variety of singers and bands. All of this was done in
support of the charities the Freddie Farmer Foundation
and the DEC Ebola Crisis Appeal, for whom the sum of
almost 10,000 was raised this year.
The Sixth Form provides students with many
opportunities to take on positions of leadership within
the school, and our local community, and this year was
no exception. 157 of the then Year 12 took up positions
as form, duty, academic and ambassador prefects. The
Senior Prefect Team of Teddy McAleer, Matthew Allen,
Jack Bradfield, Lucy Morrell, Abhishek Patel and Elena
Rastorgueva have achieved a stunning amount this year,
organising the second annual scholarship fortnight,
taking on the mantle of producing the second edition
of the cross-curricular academic journal, continuing
the sterling work of their predecessors in raising the
profile of and level of engagement with the House
system and organising a whole school co-curricular
student questionnaire, the results of which they analysed
in detail and reported to the Governing Body and
the Senior Leadership Team of the school. All this in
addition to their day-to-day work of leading the various
prefect teams which run in the school, their various
personal extra-curricular interests and achievements,
some of which youve already heard about and on top
of their superlative academic achievements. How they
have achieved all of that and have remained so driven,
so committed and so unfailingly good natured is a great
testament to their exceptional abilities and their strength

of character. Teddy, Matt, Jack, Lucy, Abhishek, Elena

your school is very greatly indebted to you; you are
exemplary Olavians and leave a powerful and inspiring
legacy to your successors.
Sixth Form students have also been instrumental in a
range of outreach initiatives with local primary schools,
and one of the highlights of our annual outreach calendar
was the Year 5 maths and science day in which 12 of our
committed academic prefects worked with 240 visiting
pupils on a carousel of activities.
Student-led societies continued to flourish, along
with an ongoing blossoming of the culture of studentproduced academic journals of astonishingly high
calibre. Sixth formers remain heavily involved in and
committed to the Schools Le Chavetois programme,
assisting and supporting a range of local communitybased endeavours and improving the quality of life of
hundreds of other people, old and young, throughout the
borough. Sixth Formers also organised Cultural Evening
which included an exotic display of music and dance as
well as culinary delights from around the world and a
dazzling fashion show.
And finally, at the close of the academic year, following A
Level examinations, Year 13s took time to celebrate the
end of their school careers, but hopefully not the end of
their contact with the school, at the Leavers Reception
where they, their parents and staff enjoyed canapes and
champagne before the students went on to the Leavers
Ball held at Oakley House.
This year group could scarcely have made me prouder as
their Director of Sixth Form, and Im sure Mrs Maxwell
would second that feeling as your Head of Year, as would
your form tutors and the rest of the teaching staff here at
St Olaves who have been privileged to work here with
you. I thank you all for making it possible for me to say
that with such absolute certainty.
Before commending you on to what I trust will be
sparkling futures, propelled ever forward by a burning
sense of aspiration and intellectual zeal and hunger,
permit me a few final words. There is a linguistic tendency
for socially marginalised, oppressed or disenfranchised
groups to appropriate and reclaim terms which were
once deemed insults and to wear them instead as a badge
of pride and cultural identity. Whereas the story of the
late twentieth century was one of significant progress
in terms of a more egalitarian and progressive attitude
towards race, gender, sexuality and political outlook, the
same period arguably witnessed a groundswell of antiintellectualism. Ive heard it said by detractors of our
school that our pupils are geeky, using the word as an
insult and yet, I have also heard the very same word
used by those who understand and celebrate the ethos
Olavian 2015 31

of our school to signify the highest form of approbation

and endorsement. To the enlightened, the word geek no
longer contains the anti-intellectual stigma and absurd
baggage which once it did; instead it celebrates the drive,
intellectual avidity and sheer delight in learning both for
its own sake and as a tool to shape a better world which
will propel us all to a brighter future. The phrase geek
chic is even a popular epithet for a particular kind of
old-school yet subtly progressive sartorial elegance. It is
the look favoured by many of the young men and women
whose work here we celebrate tonight, who, with their
school, Janus-like both reflect back on the traditions
of an illustrious past whilst maintaining an auspicious
eye on the future. More than ever before, you as a year
group have fostered an ethos in this school which is
the living embodiment of the Headmasters vision of
scholarship, culture and values. You are academically
aspirational, diverse and enthusiastic in your interests
beyond the classroom and driven by a principled and
socially enlightened approach to how you live your lives
and how you enrich the lives of those you have worked
with. You are the apotheosis of geek chic and have made
it the rightful and proud standard to which to aspire in
this school; you are in the vanguard of what drives the
linguistic change which makes the word geek a badge
of pride and are avatars of a culture which celebrates the
life of the mind. The culture of this school is a rare and
beautiful thing. You personify it and, if the chairman will
forgive me a paraphrasing of the beatitudes, I can think
of no greater compliment than this: When I look at you
all, our prize winners of 2015 and the superb legacy
you leave, never could it be said with more justifiable
certainty and pride that the geek shall inherit the earth.
Chairman, tonight celebrates the very great deal of hard
work conducted by our students and their dedicated
teachers and all concerned richly deserve to share in and
enjoy this occasion of celebration. Outstanding exam
results will open up the widest range of opportunities
for these remarkable young people and I know that as
they move on to university and to bright careers beyond,
they will take with them not only glowing results, but
all that they have learned during their time at St Olaves
Grammar School. To the outgoing Year 13, you have
set a fantastic example for the new Year 13 to follow,
you were led by a superb Captain of School in Teddy
McAleer, an excellent Senior Prefect Team and you have
been an absolute credit to the school and to your parents.
It has been a wonderful privilege this evening to eulogise
about this splendid year group. You will go on to bright
and brilliant things in your lives beyond the school, and
we look forward to sharing news of your future triumphs
in the place where you are cherished and in which you
will live long in the memory as an outstanding year
group. You are the Young Olavians of today and the
Old Olavians of tomorrow; once an Olavian, always an
Olavian. On behalf of all of your teachers, I thank you
32 Olavian 2015

all for your commitment and wish you every possible

success and happiness for the future.
Prize Day Speech by Cheryl Johnson, Head
of Year 11
t is an honour to be amongst this audience tonight,
whether as a parent, a member of staff, a student or
guest, as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of
our students.

The Head Master has spoken about the outstanding

results and high standards which our students continue
to achieve. Two years ago, I stood here, and spoke
about the achievements of many of those in the Year 13
audience, having been your HOY in Years 10 and 11,
and it gives me great pleasure to see how much you have
grown and gone on to achieve since then; so if I may just
steal a moment to say well done once more to all of you
and wish you the very best on your chosen courses or gap
year activities. Well done and have fun!
However tonight, I am here to talk about last years Year
11 cohort and what a cohort they were. From Day 1, I
knew it was going to be emotional! Dont misunderstand
me, they are an extremely talented bunch of young people
as you will know, but they had their own, unique, very
different way of doing things. I knew it wasnt going
to be an easy ride, but something gave me hope, that
something was.
Over a period of a few weeks, I came to watch the Rugby
team play their match games on Saturday morning. The
transformation I gradually saw, over the games in Year
10 and then in Year 11 was amazing. The difference came
about through hard work, dedication, self-control, selfdiscipline and in working together as a team. It took
time and it took patience, all of which underpin success.
It was a joy to see such marked improvement and I
have been delighted with the progress many individuals
have made, in all areas of school life. Forgive me for
not mentioning them all individually, but I will make
reference to several.
The year group have achieved another excellent set of
GCSE results. A number of them are here tonight
to receive prizes for exceptionally high academic
achievement, and that is wonderful. Well done all of
you. However, we can celebrate too the achievements of
a number of individuals, who may not appear on those
lists, who have overcome their own personal challenges,
to achieve a fantastic set of exam results amongst other
things.
A total of 28 boys, over a quarter of the year group,
completed a Higher Project, and even more impressively,
all achieved grade A or A* for their final grade. Similarly,

the top set mathematicians sat their IGCSE early, back

in January, and every student gained A* grade and a
mark in the 90s.
Staying with Maths, Owen Messere achieved a perfect
score of 130 in the Intermediate Maths Challenge and
Richard Moulange also performed impressively gaining
a Distinction in the Maths Olympiad.
Richard Decker, who has achieved many accolades
during the five years he has been at St Olaves, continues
to impress. This year, he won the London round of the
Poetry by Heart Competition with his recital of The
Galloping Cat, and swiftly followed that up with a first
place in the Rochester heat of the Cranmer Awards for
reading from the Book of Common Prayer.
The number of boys in the year group who play a musical
instrument to a very high level is astonishing. Mr Price
has always been very complimentary about their musical
ability, and this year saw the highest proportion of A*
grades ever achieved. But they were also very committed
to the extra-curricular activities in the school. This
evening, Richard Moulange, Richard Decker, Kosi
Nwuba and Oliver Morrell will each receive a Governors
Award for Music and that is only scratching the surface.
Digging deeper you find that Oliver Morrell formed the
Renaissance choral group which performed at several
concerts last year and he also co-led the Chapel choir
with Richard Decker. Such activities eat into their own
free time and they have willingly given it.
Miss Wilkie has also been grateful for the time given
up to support the drama work in the school. Specially
mentioned are Luke Smith and Theo Antonov who
continued to give up their time even after they had
officially left school for the summer. They worked with
the year 7 and 8 students during the final week of term,
culminating in three performances.
Many boys have excelled in a wide variety of sporting
activities. The U16 rugby team, who I have already made
reference to, won 11 out of their 14 matches this year.

The school boasts a number of Kent County swimmers;

Michael Jacobs who triumphed with a Gold medal in
the 100m back stroke, continued to push himself hard
in his training throughout his GCSEs. Charlie Davis,
Alex Leggatt and Joshua Davidson have all balanced
strong academic performances with regular training
for cross country running; their efforts saw Bromley
receive second place in the Kent Schools Cross-Country
Championships.
Year 11 also managed to organise their own football
team, and played several matches against other schools.
Kosi Nwuba was the captain of the team and organised
most of the fixtures himself. At one stage a PE teacher
from another local school called and said he was trying
to organise a game and would like to speak to a teacher
called Kosi. The team acquitted themselves admirably
despite not playing together often. Star players, Alex
Lamberti, Tom Gallagher, Seraphin Gnehm, Henry
Edwards and of course Kosi himself deserve great credit
for the way in which they represented the school.
Twelve individuals will receive Form Prizes tonight,
awarded to those students who have been supportive in
their form group, good friends, reliable, courteous and
generally very helpful and a pleasure to have around.
Your tutors, who I am grateful to for their support and
faithfulness, speak highly of you, and I would like to
take this opportunity to thank the tutors for the pastoral
support they have given you.
So summing up, the year group have done well. They
have performed well academically and shown their
commitment to a great number and diverse range of
activities alongside that academic work.
My final note is one to all the students, those staying
with us and those leaving us. There is a huge world out
there waiting for you to stamp your mark and make a
difference make the most of it and remember this
was just the beginning. We are grateful and proud to
have played just a small part.

The cricket team, having won the Bromley Cup Festival

when they were in Year 9, continued with the same form
and brought home the silverware in Year 10 too.
Eton Fives is a very popular choice of sport for many
boys, and they excel at it. Morgan Pugh has played in the
Old Olavians 1st Division, Vish Shetty took a superb
win at the Eton U16s, and continuous, outstanding
performances from Tomas Gallagher and Kosi Nwuba
have gained them an unbeatable reputation. They won
the U16 Nationals without dropping a set; this makes
them the best in the country and even, so Tomas informs
me, best in the world!
Olavian 2015 33

L.W. White Prize for Sporting

Activities

William Phillips

I.W. Kirk Prize for Sportsmanship

Edward King

Senior Victor Ludorum

Jonathan Pairman

Matthew Allen

Sidney Tweedy Chess Cup

Raunak Rao

John Bradfield

Douglas Keeble Prize for Fives

Josh Ravi

Lucy Morrell

Gordon James Christie Prize for

Cricket

Matthew Lane

Special Prizes
Giles Pilcher Prize for Public Service
Edward McAleer
(Awarded by The Old Olavians Lodge)

John Marshalls
Educational Foundation Prizes

Abhishek Patel

Sohayl Ujoodia

Elena Rastorgueva

Prizes for Achievement in Public Examinations

Chambers Prize for Leadership

Raunak Rao

The Anthony Jarvis Shield

Liam Carroll

The Woodard Board Prize

Lucy Morrell

Michael Pugh Prize for Public

Speaking

Matthew Allen

Daniel Fargie

Joseph Cordery

Akhilesh Amit

Hope Goodban

The Renshaw Shield for Debating

Skye Galpeer-Shade

Olivia Argent

Marcus Grainger

Headmasters Prize for Poetry

Rachel Wood

Kush Banga

Alastair Haig

O.O Lodge Prize for Contribution to

School Life

Jeevan Ravindran

Daniel Bradford

Danielle Hasoon

Celeste Brant

Eftichia Iossifidis

Daniel Bradford

Zoe Chadwick

James Kershaw

The Medical Fund

H.G. Abel Prizes for A-Level

Liam Carroll

Stephen Chan

George Martin

Cathedral Parish Prize for Voluntary

Service

Nicholas
Greenwood

Patrick Cromb

Edward McAleer

Sarah Cronk

Abhishek Patel

Leslie Sanders Prize for English

Literature

Samuel
Luker-Brown

Susannah Da Silva

Raunak Rao

French Prize

Nisha Virdee

Daramola

Elena Rastorgueva

A.W. Walker Prize for German

Rowena Stevenson

Gabrielle Day

Weronika Raszewska

Spanish Prize

Florence Salotun

Daniel Dean

David Richards

Matthew Holmes Prize for Classics

Joseph Cordery

Mark Dinh

Janushanth Sritharan

The Ashley Prize for History

Matthew Roberts

Chandan Dodeja

Anthony Tang

Cleveland Douglas

Hoan Truong

Antiquarian Society Prize for a History

Callum Sarracino
Project

Nigel DSouza

Geography Prize

Hope Goodban

For G.C.S.E.

Economics Prize

James Gibb

Prem Chowdhry

Richard Moulange

Harry Little Prize for Mathematics

Kush Banga

Joshua Davidson

Chukwunenyem Nwuba

Paul Slade Prize for Physics

Elena Rastorgueva

Richard Decker

Daroon Ramadani

Brian Ruth Memorial Prize for Physics Kush Banga

Tomas Gallagher

Sachin Savur

Gnaanachelvan Prize for Biology

Eamon Hassan

Seraphin Gnehm

Luke Smith

Biology Project Prize

Abhishek Patel

Leonard Lee

Harry Stanbury

George Dyson Prize for Chemistry

Olivia Argent

Jacob Loveridge

Ciaran Twomey

Chemistry Experimental Skills Prize

Raunak Rao

Computing Prize

Callum Sarracino

Phyllis Packer Prize for Practical

Musicianship

Alicia Harris

An Old Olavian Prize for Music

Lucy Morrell

Awarded by the Parents Association for enthusiasm, commitment and imagination in the use of the Lower Sixth year

Religious Studies Prize

Nilojana Nirmalan

Aster Gordon

Jeevan Ravindran

Art Prize

Matilda Boyer

Michaela James

Sebastien Santhiapillai

Graphics Prize

Jordan Butt

Iham Mohamed Kasem

Bradley Sawyer

Design Prize

Henry Gill

Alexander Mulroy

Suzanne Smith

John Bradfield

Adeel Mushtaq

Tom Wang

Susan Owen Medal for Drama

34 Olavian 2015

Lower VI Form Prizes

Form Prizes
Joseph Fairhall,

11H

Rickey Rajendran

Richard Moulange

ABRSM Grade 8 (piano)

Chukwunenyem
Nwuba

Fives

Henry Rennolls

Swimming

Oscar Ridout

Beckenham Festival

Akhil Sonthi

AS Physics Olympiad Challenge

Imogen Spark

Netball

Sohayl Ujoodia

Cricket

Kieran Walton

Hockey

Thomas Whichello

Rugby

Adam Whitelaw

Fencing

Alexander Albarosa,

11J

Qais Zaidi
Jacob Loveridge,

11K

Kirryl Tarunin
John Holden-Murphy,

11L

Oluwatobi Salami
Joshua Davidson

11M

Hani Razvi
James Black,

11N

Oliver Morrell
James Byrne,

10J

Tommaso Simpkins
Jordan Adesina,

10K

Callum Twose
Veyasan Karnan,

10L

Sean Seeds

Aahan Sabharwal
Alexander Martin,

10M

Charles Stocks
John Bentas,

10N

Henry Miller

Wilfred Kiondo
Oscar Hinze

Vex Robotics

Nathan Lewis

Grants and Awards

Grants for Outward Bound, Travel and Gap Year projects

Governors Awards

Christopher Page,
Oliver Telling,
Haniel Whitmore

John Bradfield

National Playwriting Competition

Harriet Caisley

RCM Junior Department Grade 8

(piano)

Zoe Chadwick

KYCO (cor anglais)

Richard Decker

ABRSM Grade 8 with distinction

(piano)

Tomas Gallagher

Fives

Theodore Haslam

Swimming

Alexander Jochim

Tennis

Alexander Lau

ATCL Diploma (piano) and

Norman Trotman Competition
BYMT

Eric Leung

RCM Junior Department (cello and

piano)

Finn Macpherson

Rugby

Lucy Morrell

ATCL Diploma (piano) and

ABRSM Grade 8 with distinction
(organ)

Oliver Morrell

LFCCM composer

The James Burdett Memorial Prize:

Matilda Boyer, Max

Brooks, Jordan Butt,
Adrian Lamoury,
Max Lewthwate,
Samuel Luker
Brown, Rachel
Wood

Cultural trip across America in

preparation for reading English
Literature at university, with a focus
on Poetry, Music and Photography.

Historical cultural and artistic visit

to Budapest, one of the great capitals
of Europe, providing enrichment for
University studies.

The Potto Hicks Award:

Daniel Finucane

Travelling through Europe by train

to explore classical sites and broaden
knowledge prior to reading Classical
Studies at the University of Bristol.

The Witton/Newmarch Award:

John Bradfield

Travelling through Europe by train

to broaden research and knowledge
prior to reading English at the
University of Oxford.

Olavian 2015 35

The Rushbrooke Memorial/Gridley Award:

Frederick Luff

Catherine Bean,
Matthew Roberts

Oluwamayomiwa Makinde

Visit to Berlin to broaden

knowledge of life under the Soviet
Union, classical traditions of
German aristocracy and on-going
understanding of the Ancient world
prior to reading History and PPE at
the University of Oxford.

Alice Millar
Nilojana Nirmalan
Calvin On
Contribution to School

Abhishek Patel
Raunak Rao
Josh Ravi

The War Memorial Scholarship

Florence Salotun

Pamela Tickell

Darshana Sridhar

Volunteering in Costa Rica,

including teaching and involvement
in extra curricular endeavours prior
to reading History and Politics at
Nottingham University.

Aman Tiwari
Rachel Wood
Sports leadership

Headmasters Fund
Oluwamayomiwa
Makinde

Taranpreet Bhoday
Matthew Allen

Travelling through France to utilise

language skills and gain an insight
into French customs and culture
prior to commencing studies at
University.

Debating

Skye Galpeer-Shade
Max Lewthwaite
Andrei Sonea
Jack Bradfield

Weronika Raszewska Undertaking a residential family

placement in Ibiza to broaden
experience of different cultures, visit
historical sites and improve language
skills.

Josephy Cordery

Susannah da Silva

Samuel Edwards

Sarah Cronk
Chloe Daley
Peter Debenham

Historical visit to Hong Kong and

China together with the opportunity
to trace family ancestry prior to
reading Veterinary Medicine at the
University of Cambridge.

Daniel Finucane
Alicia Harris
Adrian LaMoury
Jonathan Leech
Drama

Holly Lewis

Full Colours 2015

Max Lewthwaite

Senior Colours

Emily Macpherson-Smith

Senior Prefects

Matthew Allen

Loren Noble

Jack Bradfield

Robert Pattinson

Edward McAleer

Matthew Roberts

Lucy Morrell

Pamela Tickell

Abhishek Patel

Katherine Tragheim

Elena Rastorgueva

Haniel Whitmore

Mojere Agbaje

Rachel Wood

Andrew Bertini

Max Brookes

Max Brookes

Contribution to School

Samuel Luker-Brown

Fives

Matipa Chieza

Josh Ravi

Max Costaras

Rory Lilley

Cleveland Douglas

Football

Eren Salih

Shezara Francis

Oscar Dixon

Danish Hafeez

Taranpreet Bhoday

Danielle Hasoon

Hockey

Holly Lewis

Frederick Luff
Oliver Telling

Edward King

36 Olavian 2015

Edward King

Music

Zoe Chadwick

Music

Alicia Harris

Michelle Ruas

Lucy Morrell

Janushanth Sritharan

Abhishek Patel
Adam Stagg

Netball

Nisha Virdee
Catherine Walker

Chloe Daley

Simone White

Daniel Bradford

Rachel Wood

Joseph Cordery
James Gibb
Kanyanta Green
Rugby

Other Clubs and

Societies

Edward King
Edward McAleer
William Phillips

Intermediate Colours
Chapel
Chess
Cricket

Luke Prentice
Joshua Searby
Thomas Walton

Richard Decker
Oliver Morrell
Owen Messre
Tomas Gallagher
Keeran Rajendran
Richard Decker

Drama

Oliver Morrell
Richard Moulange

Mojere Agbaje

Luke Smith

Matthew Allen

John Oxley

Akhilesh Amit

Fives

Morgan Pugh

Catherine Bean

Vishwakrith Shetty

Matilda Boyer

Richard Decker

Jack Bradfield

Music

Jordan Butt
Liam Carroll
Matipa Chieza

Richard Moulange
Rugby

Rebecca Daramola
Gabrielle Day
Daniel Dean
Skye Galpeer-Shade

Oliver Morrell
Henry Edwards
Niall Johal
Thomas Garner

Other Clubs and

Societies

Justin Reed
Anik Roy
Benjamin Ryan

James Gibb
Daniel Gillette
Other Clubs and
Societies

Holly Gressier
Avni Gupta
Alastair Haig
Eamon Hassan
Molly Haynes
Adrian LaMoury
Joel Lewis
Frederick Luff
Samuel Luker Brown
Lucy Morrell
Luke ODonovan
Christopher Page
Abhishek Patel
Bethany Prentice
Raunak Rao
Elena Rastorgueva
Weronika Raszewska
Matthew Roberts

Olavian 2015 37

38 Olavian 2015

VI Form News

VI Form News

he Sixth Forms achievements have covered a vast

spectrum. In virtually all aspects of the schools
vibrant life they have played a significant, active and very
useful part. The prefects have seen the smooth running
of duties, have assisted classes in the lower school, have
helped the integration of Sixth Formers from outside
the school with internal pupils, been there at parents
evenings with hot drinks, shown timorous year six pupils
to their entrance test rooms, beaten the opposition on
the netball courts and the rugby pitch and in between
all that have found time to excel in all academic subjects.
The proliferation of clubs, societies, productions of
magazines, the performance of school plays and the
participation in orchestras and choirs is testament to the
rigorous spirit of determination and zeal that courses so
abundantly through the bodies of all the pupils in years
twelve and thirteen. The articles beneath reflect just a
section of their own very active part in the well-being of
the school and its tremendous successes.

David Budds
Director of Sixth Form

Blackland Farm
In perfect weather Year 12 novi and novae participated
in a range of outdoor challenges which enabled them
to become acquainted. The activities included balancing
on planks, swinging on ropes and designing paper
parachutes to drop eggs from the top of an abseil tower.
Our hard-boiled students scrambled bravely for victory,
poaching as many points as they could but just when
they thought it was all ova 12M won the most successful
team award.

Simone White, for producing the 2nd edition of the

Law Society Journal; and to Jack Bradfield and Abhishek
Patel for compiling and editing the 2nd edition of the
Academic Journal, a truly erudite collection of scholarly
articles and the best of the EPQ and HPQ projects.
International Ambassadors
18 students have been selected to become International
Student Ambassadors. They will be helping to run
projects and exchanges with schools across the world
such as developing the British Council link with La
Martiniere School for Girls, Kolkata, and starting a
new link with a school in Sicily. The aim is to heighten
understanding of different cultures, values and traditions
with a focus on sustainable living and globalisation.
Cultural Evening
Our annual celebration of cultural diversity with
music, dance, haute cuisine and couture from around
the world, was charismatically compered by Thanusan
Balakrishnan, Shaun Bentum, James Gibb and Kanyanta
Green. Dazzling highlights included virtuoso piano
playing from Victoria Kwok, Bollywood dancing from
Divija Seelam, a Chinese Wushu display from Quang
Tu, Carnatic dancing from Jeevan Ravindran, a Nigerian
pop song from Florence Salotun accompanied by Calvin
On, culminating in the inimitable Fashion Show. Thanks
to parents, performers and organising committee,
Shezara Francis, Danielle Hasoon, Calvin On, Florence
Salotun, Darshana Sridhar and Elena Rastorgueva, we
made a substantial donation to Amnesty International.

Tall Ships Races

Conor Watson and Peter Maslin took part in a 10
day cruise in company around the coast of Norway,
from Fredrikstad to Bergen in a Dutch Schooner.
They worked on board The Gulden Leeuw tall ship as
trainees alongside an international crew from Poland,
Italy, France, Norway, Afghanistan and Syria. Sleeping
quarters were like a large wine rack. 4 hour shifts
climbing the rigging, hoisting sails, cooking and washing
up in the galley were balanced by some welcome dips off
the ship in the North Sea.
Scholarship
Congratulations to Presidents Mojere Agbaje and
40 Olavian 2015

Sixth form Leavers Ball

Festival
The annual Festival raised funds to support a local and
an international charity with favourites such as Just a
Minute, Pointless and Would I Lie to You? featuring
panels of staff and students. There was an exciting
Science v Humanities face off in Family Fortunes and a
wide range of innovative stalls which preceded an Interhouse Dance Off ! Our thanks go to Cleveland Douglas,
Henry Gill, Danish Hafeez, Nilojana Nirmalan with
Senior Prefect Lucy Morrell for their hard work in
making the day such a success.
Cabaret
Everyone turned out wonderfully for the occasion,
capturing this years theme of Black and Gold
Masquerade. Varied acts covered all genres from standup to hard rock. Hats come off to the organisers, Maya,
Alice, Matipa and Andrew. What talent, what verve,
what fun!
Scholarship Fortnight
The Michaelmas term got off to a suitably aspirational
start with the second annual Olavian Scholarship
Fortnight. Ten Old Olavians led symposia on a diverse
range of topics; the Great Hall played host to our
Harvard Outreach Evening, outlining the process of
applying to the most prestigious US universities, and
our Senior Scholarship Evening saw the launch of
our second pan-curricular Academic Journal, with ten
erudite 6th Formers presenting some of the finest HPQ
and EPQ projects.
Exam Successes
Congratulations to new Year 12 student Nicole Morgan
who recently gained Distinctions in both the ISTD
Tap and Modern, Advanced 1, dance examinations; to
Jonathan Lancaster who achieved a Distinction with
134 marks in his Grade 5 organ exam; and to Jonathan
Leech who passed his Grade 8 singing exam with a
Distinction and was selected to play the role of Raoul
in a borough-wide BYMT production of Phantom of
the Opera.
Interview Day
Year 13s participated in this exchange day with Langley
Park School for Boys in preparation for university
interviews. A one-to-one specialist interview plus a
series of workshops, lectures and discussion groups
helped students reflect on and prepare for the process.
Independent Learning
This Conference, hosted by the Life Skills Company,
gave Year 12s a chance to practise the study skills they
need for A Levels and University, such as speed and
skim reading, effective note taking, condensing text, time
management and presentation skills.

Higher Education Evening

Year 12 found out about the challenges of student life
as they prepare for the UCAS process later. Katherine
Pagett from Birmingham University tackled the
questions: Why go, which university and what course?
Elizabeth Farnhill from the University of Sheffield,
outlined student finance, and Richard Patient of Imperial
College, focused on completion of the UCAS form.
Voice of the Future
Four students had the privilege of attending the Voice of
the Future event at the House of Commons, broadcast live
on the BBC Parliament channel. MPs and government
organisations, including the Select Committee for
Science and Technology, fielded questions ranging from
equality in science careers to changing science policies
in the UK. Organisations present included the Royal
Societies of Chemistry and Biology, as well as St. Olaves
Grammar School, represented by Zoe Chadwick,
Abhishek Patel, Rebecca Daramola and Liam Carroll.
Ambassador Outreach Prefects
These newly appointed Prefects are building links
between the school and former Olavians, by improving
the website, database and networks to keep the Old
Olavian community more integrated with school life. As
well as promoting school events such as Commemoration
they will be introducing new social ones such as Young
Olavians dinners for more recent leavers.
O Factor
The annual house singing competition heard hymns and
pop songs, including Rick Astleys Never Gonna Give
You Up, One Directions What makes You Beautiful,
Bastilles Pompeii and Coldplays Viva La Vida, with
favourites hymns: Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer
and Be Thou My Vision. Vice- Captain of School,
Lucy Morrell, coordinated the event assisted by her
brother Oliver Morrell and Richard Decker.
Student-run Societies
Underpinning the scholarship agenda students invite
professionals to address their gatherings. In Classics
Society Dr DAngour, Jesus College Oxford, focused
on music and rhythm in classical poetry; Geographers
heard a lecture on Gender and the Development Gap by
Dr Willis; Dr McDermott, University of Kent addressed
Natural Sciences Society on the Rosetta Space Mission;
Medics Society heard Dr Kangeson speak on Life as a
GP; Edward Wood spoke about Fast Track Graduate
Careers in Parliament; Danny Lavender presented the
challenges of early onset Parkinsons disease; History
Society hosted a talk by Dr Dyson, Fellow at Trinity
College Cambridge, on Attempting the Impossible;
Political Economy Society welcomed MP Heidi
Alexander.

Olavian 2015 41

Oxbridge Evening
Oxbridge representatives addressed a Great Hall packed
with aspirational students and parents from St. Olaves
and other schools on the challenges of applying to these
prestigious universities. Dr Richard Earl of Worcester
College, Oxford and Dr Caroline Burt of Pembroke
College, Cambridge, with tutors Helen Brooks of
Mansfield College, Oxford and Laura McGarty of
Pembroke College, Cambridge, offered an erudite blend
of statistical information and pragmatic advice followed
by a lively Q&A session.
HPQs and EPQs
The Spring Term saw the completion and presentation
of Year 11 Higher Project Qualifications and Year 13
Extended Project Qualifications with some fascinating
scholarly research presented to audiences of students
and parents. These impressive personal studies included
Oliver Morrells Is the Baroque period responsible for
the western musical of today?; John Hawks Graphene;
How will it affect the future? Matthew Allens Does the
EU undermine national sovereignty?; Akhil Amits Can
space technology enable manned interstellar travel?;
Joseph Corderys Is the Minoan civilisation a creation of
Sir Arthur Evans mind?; Rebecca Daramolas Is the risk
of developing ovarian cancer determined by genetics?
Medics Outreach
Aspiring Medics, both Olavian and from partner schools
via the PLASMA-T project, have benefitted from
outreach events with prestigious universities. Motunrayo
Olaleye, Apoorva Kumar and Daniel Jenkins arranged
the Medical Admissions Information Evening in which
admissions officers from Oxford, Cambridge and St.
Andrews gave details of curriculum structures and
applications processes before responding to questions
from the audience. Admissions staff and student
volunteers from Imperial College led workshops for Year
11/12 students and a staff session on preparing students
for successful medical applications.
Careers in Languages Day
4 students attended the Careers in Languages Day at
Westminster University. They enjoyed lectures about
translating and interpreting as well as the opportunity
to learn Russian, Chinese or Arabic and to have a go at
interpreting.
Social Mobility
As a first step in enabling greater social mobility we
welcomed some Year 5 looked after pupils from Bromley
Primary schools for a taster day. After a snapshot of the
schools history Year 7 pupils gave them a tour of the
site, before joining hungry students at the canteen. After
sampling Art and DT lessons they were entertained by
prefects, Alastair Haig and Holly Lewis, for a Maths
session on Countdown and Leapfrogs. Lunch rounded
42 Olavian 2015

off the morning and we hope that any myths about

Grammar schools have been debunked.
The Leavers Ball
The new quad was a wellspring of sunshine, canaps and
badinage for our Leavers Reception at which parents
and students mixed with staff in a relaxed environment.
After entertaining speeches in The Great Hall, coaches
took the leavers to the Ball at Oakley House. To the
accompaniment of the Take Five Party Band students
danced, enjoyed a sumptuous buffet and the legerdemain
of the magician. They have been a fantastic year group
who we hope will keep in close contact with the school
for years to come.
Sixth form Congratulations Evening
There was a real buzz at this event where we welcomed
and extended our warmest congratulations to 150
external students who have been offered places in the
Sixth Form. After talks and a tour of the school they
enjoyed a fine buffet and a chance to socialise under the
watchful eyes of the new Ambassador Prefects.
New Senior Prefects
Congratulations to the new Senior Prefect Team for
2015-16: Captain of School: Daniel Jenkins; Vice
Captains of School: Amy Borrett, Isabelle Cooper, Iham
Mohamed Kasem, Radhika Kumar, Rishil Patel, Jeevan
Ravindran and David Van Egghen.
UCAS Day
Post AS-Level examinations, we welcomed back Year
12s for their UCAS day with an introduction to HE
admissions and advice on writing a personal statement
from N. Johnston of Durham University. A panel of
recent St. Olaves leavers kindly offered a students
perspective on the quirks of the process, the joys of
offers and heart-ache of rejection. We trust that this
firm foundation of advice will encourage students to
aspire with confidence to some of the most sought-after
courses and institutions in the country.
After the reception, parents waved their sons and
daughters goodbye as the students moved onto the
Leavers Ball at Westerham Golf Club. Students
danced the night away to the Take 5 Party Band and
were entertained by a magician as they socialised on the
balcony, overlooking the golf course.
Recent Old Olavians
Kate Richards secured a an Excellent First Class honours
degree in history at the University Of York.
Stuart MacGowan has attained a MSci Geology degree
from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering
at Imperial College, London.

Lower VI - Blacklands Farm Team-building Day

Olavian 2015 43

Leavers Destinations 2015

Name
Agbaje, Jere

Destination
Warwick

Course
Law and Sociology

Allen, Matthew
Amit, Akhilesh
Argent, Olivia
Arunathevan, Andrew
Balakrishnan, Thanusan
Banga, Kush
Barovbe, Daniel
Bean, Catherine
Belmain, Alaric
Bentum-Siripi, Shaun
Bertini, Andrew
Bhoday, Taranpreet
Boyer, Matilda
Bradbury, Isabel
Bradfield, Jack
Bradford, Daniel
Brant, Celeste

Warwick
Imperial
Cambridge, Jesus
Southampton Solent
Warwick
Cambridge, Churchill
Warwick
Oxford, Mansfield
Re-applying in 2016
UCL
Manchester
Re-applying in 2016
Brighton
Exeter
Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall
St. George's University of London
Imperial

History and Politics

Aeronautical Engineering
Natural Sciences
Yacht and Powercraft Design
Economics
Mathematics
Computer Science
Philosophy Politics and Economics

Brookes, Max
Burchill, Benjamin
Burtonshaw, James

Bristol
Swansea
Exeter
Courtauld Institute of Art,
University of London
East Anglia
Oxford, St. Peter's
Oxford, St. Edmund Hall
Cambridge, Robinson
Nottingham
Oxford, Christ Church
Southampton
Bristol
Bath
Cambridge, Murray Edwards
Cardiff
Oxford, New
Manchester
Re-applying in 2016
Imperial

Economics
Materials Science and Engineering
Geology

Butt, Jordan
Cann-Abaidoo, Michael
Carroll, Liam
Chadwick, Zoe
Chan, Stephen
Chieza, Matipa
Cordery, Joseph
Costaras, Max
Cromb, Patrick
Cronk, Sarah
Da Silva, Susannah
Daley, Chloe
Daramola, Rebecca
Day, Ella
Day, Jonathan
Dean, Daniel

44 Olavian 2015

Geography
Chemical Engineering
Fine Art Painting
Geography
English Language and Literature
Medicine
Geophysics

History of Art
Pharmacy
Medicine
Materials Science
Medicine
Pharmacy
Classics II
Civil Engineering
Economics
Mathematics
Veterinary
Law
Biochemist
Medicine
Computing

Debenham, Peter
Desai, Jay
Dibley, Velvet
Dinh, Mark
Dixon, Oscar
Do, Lawrence
Dodeja, Chandan
Dorrer, George
Douglas, Cleveland
Drabwell, Emeline
D'Souza, Nigel
Dudley, Joseph
Eaton, Christopher
Edwards, Lucy
Edwards, Samuel
Elufioye, Christopher
Fahy, Jacob
Fargie, Daniel
Fearnley, Edward
Finucane, Daniel
Flagg, Andy
Foxhall, Marc
Francis, Shezara
Fraser, Gerald
Galpeer-Shade, Skye
Galvin, Daniel
Gibb, James
Gill, Henry
Gillette, Daniel
Goodban, Hope
Grainger, Marcus
Green, Kanyanta
Gressier, Holly
Grozier, Charlie
Gupta, Ankur
Gupta, Avni
Hafeez, Danish
Haig, Alastair

Nottingham
Birmingham
UCL
Cambridge, Trinity Hall
Surrey
UCL
Imperial
Exeter
Imperial
Loughborough
Oxford, St. John's
Southampton
Durham
Bristol
Nottingham
Loughborough
UCL
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam
Re-applying in 2016
Bristol
Oxford, St. Anne's
Re-applying in 2016
Re-applying in 2016
Aston
Exeter
Warwick
Surrey
Ravensbourne
Re-applying in 2016
Imperial
Warwick
Leicester
Bristol
Re-applying in 2016
Nottingham
Oxford, Keble
Manchester
Cambridge, Gonville & Caius

Harcombe, Owen
Harper, Sam
Harris, Alicia
Hasoon, Danielle
Hassan, Eamon

Imperial
Exeter
Warwick
QBELF
UCL

Product Design and Manufacture

Dentistry
English
Mathematics
Economics
Pharmacology
Aeronautical Engineering
Economics
Chemical Engineering
International Business
Mathematics
History
Philosophy
Spanish and Portuguese
History
Chemical Engineering
Astophysics
Engineering
Classical Studies
Geography

Chemical Engineering
History
Economics
Economics
Digital Film
Civil Engineering
Physics
Banking and Finance
Religion and Theology
Economics
Chemistry
Medicine
Mathematics
Electronic and Information
Engineering
Economics
Physics
Dentistry
Biomedical
Olavian 2015 45

Hawes, Chloe
Haynes, Molly
Heath, Oliver
Ho, Haozen
Holland, Liam
Hookway, Georgina
Iossifidis, Effie
Jog, Ajeya
Judge, Martin
Kaba, Saarah
Kershaw, James
Khan, Saad
Khandelwal, Sevenia
King, Edward
Krishna, Dhruv
Kwok, Victoria
LaMoury, Adrian
Leech, Jonathan
Lewis, Holly
Lewis, Joel
Lewthwaite, Max
Lilley, Rory
Lindsay-Price, Milo
Luff, Freddie
Luker Brown, Samuel
Macpherson-Smith,
Emily
Makinde, Maya
Mallett, Faye
Mansell, Oliver
Marshall, George
Martin, George
Matthews, Luke
McAleer, Teddy
McCarthy, Saul
McKenzie, Alexander
Millar, Alice
Morrell, Lucy
Nathan, Kartigan
Ng, Simon
Nirmalan, Nilojana
Noble, Loren
O'Donovan, Luke
On, Calvin
46 Olavian 2015

Re-applying in 2016
Nottingham
Warwick
Birmingham
Manchester
Nottingham
UCL
KCL
LMU
KCL
Oxford, New
Warwick
Warwick
Bath
UCL
Cambridge, Churchill
Imperial
Surrey
Bristol
Oxford, St. Annes'
Re-applying in 2016
Liverpool
Manchester
Nottingham
Oxford, Balliol
Bristol
Birmingham
KCL
Bristol
Leeds
Warwick
East Anglia
Bristol
Queen Mary University of London
Exeter
Birmingham
Cambridge, Girton
Re-applying in 2016
Birmingham
Exeter
Re-applying in 2016
Nottingham
KCL

Law
Mathematics
Economics
Chemical Engineering
French Studies
Medicine
Computer Science
Human Geography
Dentistry
Engineering
Discrete Mathematics
Engineering
Economics
Biochemist
Veterinary Medicine
Physics
Business Management with Marketing
Mathematics
Computer Science
Geography
Philosophy
Product Design and Manufacture
History and English
Geography
Civil Engineering
English Law and French Law
Mathematics
Economics
Engineering
Economics
Mechanical Engineering
Physics
Economics
Anthropology and History
Music
Biochemist
Law
Architecture
Biomedical

O'Neill, Megan
Osborn, Teddy
Page, Christopher
Pairman, Jon
Patel, Abhishek
Pathmanathen, Nithen
Pattinson, Robert
Phillips, William
Prentice, Beth
Prentice, Luke
Quail, Joshua
Rao, Raunak
Rastorgueva, Elena
Raszewska, Weronika
Raveenthiran, Akkilash
Ravi, Josh
Reekie, Evan
Richards, David
Roberts, Matthew

Manchester
Bristol
Oxford, Hertford
Southampton
Cambridge, Emmanuel
Bristol
Nottingham
Bristol
Reading
Manchester
Nottingham
Cambridge, St. Catharine's
Cambridge, Corpus Christi
Warwick
Nottingham
Surrey
Warwick
LSE
Oxford, Keble

Ruas, Michelle
Salih, Eren
Salotun, Florence
Sarracino, Callum
Searby, Joshua
Shotton, Jacob
Sivapalan, Nirjithan
Skelly, Jacob

Nottingham
Leeds
KCL
Edinburgh
Loughborough
Manchester
Imperial
Sussex

Smieja, Connor
Sonea, Andrei
Sridhar, Darshana
Sritharan, Janushanth
Stagg, Adam
Stevenson, Rowena
Stimson, Connor
Tang, Anthony
Tarhan, Oskay
Telling, Oliver
Tickell, Pamela
Tiwari, Aman
Tragheim, Katie
Truong, Hoan
Trusselle, Imogen

Bath
Re-applying in 2016
UCL
Imperial
Warwick
Sheffield
Manchester
Cambridge, Selwyn
Nottingham
Exeter
Nottingham
Re-applying in 2016
Manchester
Imperial
Bristol

Biology
Geography
English Language and Literature
Mechanical Engineering
Natural Sciences
Economics
Economics
Law
Art and Film and Theatre
Mechanical Engineering
Economics
Medicine
Engineering
Physics
Economics
Economics
Politics and International Studies
Economics
Ancient and Modern History
Computer Science with Artificial
Intelligence
Environment and Business
Biomedical
Japanese
Mechanical Engineering
Politics, Philosophy and Economics
Medicine
Arts and Humanities
Chemistry for Drug Discovery with
Industrial Placement
Chemistry
Medicine
Engineering
Civil and Structural Engineering
Engineering
Medicine
Economics
English
History and Politics
Biology
Mathematics
Classics

Olavian 2015 47

Tu, Quang
van Bakel, Isaac
Virdee, Nisha
Walker, Kitty
Walton, Thomas
West, Katrina
White, Simone
Whitmore, Haniel
Williams, Laurence
Wood, Rachel
Yip, Victor
Zhu, Henry
James Watson
Ella Wells
Julian Wickert
William Williams
Jakobi Wilmott
Rebecca Wong
Michael Yates
Caroline Yuen
Peter Zheng

48 Olavian 2015

Warwick
Re-applying in 2016
UCL
Glasgow
Hull
Exeter
Newcastle
Oxford, Somerville
Sheffield
Edinburgh
Warwick
UCL
New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
York
Bristol
LSE
Reading
Durham
Queens College, Oxford
Imperial

Engineering
Physics
Philosphy
Primary Teaching
Biological Sciences
Law
English Language and Literature
Civil and Structural Engineering
English Literature
Physics
Philosophy
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Biochemistry
Economics
Palaeontology and Evolution
Economics
Accounting and Business
English Literature
Law
Aeronautical Engineering

Clubs
& Extra-curricular

Clubs and Extra-curricular

Natural Sciences Society
The last year has seen the Natural Sciences Society at St
Olaves continue to flourish.
We have had a wide variety of students presenting on an
even more diverse range of topics of their interest. Under
the new team of Presidents we have produced one of
the largest Journals yet, with nearly twenty articles from
students who attend the society meetings.
Our Spring Journal possesses both quantity and quality;
we have articles on Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Medicine
and Engineering, reflecting the varied and specialist
intrigues of the contributing writers. Each writer
handled their chosen topic with a care and enthusiasm
that should be commended. The topics of articles in
the Spring issue ranged from the very small, with titles
such as Heavy Hydrogen, A Monoclonal Antibody
Treatment for Breast Cancer, and Particle Physics The Nature and Discovery of Subatomic Particles, to
the very large like Pulsars: An Unexpected Discovery
, Galileo Father of Astronomy. Furthermore we
even had a guest entry from a lower school student and
member of the Junior Natural Sciences Society entitled
Pigs and Their Adaptations. It is truly gratifying to see
the depth and breadth these articles cover, and to see the
enthusiasm of the students who write them. It captures
the multidisciplinary ethos of modern science and makes
the work of a President a joy.
The Society meetings began with each President giving
a talk in turn to introduce themselves and their interests
to the members attending the society. The year started
with my talk on Synesthesia, which included interactive
diagnostic tests and personal descriptions of a rare
condition which causes one to experience the world
with multiple senses in tandem. Then Radhika Kumar
talked on Motor Neurone Disease, with detailed
medical analysis of its causes and treatments. Following
this Nicole Morgan presented on Graphene the one
atom thick carbon wonder material and its potential to
revolutionise our world. To round off the Presidential
series Iham Kasem talked on A Monoclonal Antibody
Treatment for Breast Cancer, a standout talk in its
technical depth. We then were treated to presentations
from regulars at the society. Rowan Wright presented on
The Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, and challenged
us to consider the possibility of a world dictated by
mathematical laws rather than described by them, causing
some lively debate to ensue. Tom Boddington educated
us on Human Prion Diseases and on our last day this
50 Olavian 2015

term we had Emily O Sullivan talking on Progeria. As a

special event, we held a debate on The Value of Science,
with a high number of attendees for what proved to be
a very engaging topic for our budding young scientists.
Many argued for the value of science, with opposition
from Alexander Lau and some playing Devils Advocate
to all positions. We also had a presentation delivered by
Abhishek Patel the previous President of the Society
and Olivia Argent on Applying for Natural Sciences at
Cambridge. And together they brought in possibly the
highest turnout Ive ever seen. We then had a workshop
given by guest speaker and PhD student William Dunn
on the detection of Exoplanets using the transit method.
We were amazed to learn about the real methods used
by scientists to determine the features of the most alien
worlds. Previous Vice-President of the Society Elena
Rastorgueva gave a talk on how to make the perfect
paper aeroplane and Danny Jenkins enlightened us on
how chameleons change their colours. Our final talk of
the year was given by me on Fermats Last Theorem, the
hardest problem in number theory.
At the start of a new academic year we have had a huge
influx of new members of the Society. We began with
a talk by me on the technology and science behind
the new Gaia telescope. Following this the always
entertaining Tom Wang presented on compounds of the
noble gases before we picked up part two of our debate
on The Value of Science in the following week. We
eagerly look forward to seeing what our new members
can teach us in both their talks and their articles. In
particular we anticipate another stellar journal of even
greater proportions than the last. Last but certainly not
least in our calendar will be the appointment of a new
team of Presidents of the Society, and we pre-emptively
wish them luck and success in carrying on the Societys
legacy.
We would like to thank Ms Marwood, and I hope I can
do justice to her contributions to the society here. Thanks
to her support and guidance (and classroom) we have
been able to smoothly run the most popular Society in
school. While a student led team, the Natural Sciences
Society couldnt function at the high level it does without
her as a supporting staff member. In particular I would
like to thank her for making the spring Journal possible,
and aiding the Presidential team in our transition into
running the Society. Secondly we would like to thank
Abhishek Patel, Elena Rastorgueva, and Raunak Rao
for choosing us as Presidents at the end of the Autumn
term. We have immensely enjoyed our time so far and

cannot wait to continue engaging and communicating

science to the students in our school. Thank you for
this unparalleled opportunity. And lastly thank you to
you, members of the society, for contributing so much.
Without you neither the weekly meetings nor the journal
would be possible. Thanks to your scientific curiosity and
passion we have been able to showcase the work of the
Society, and we are all the more enriched for it.
Medics Society
The 2014/15 school year have shown a continuation of
the strong medical presence at Saint Olaves, with a great
variety of presentations having been delivered. Student
and Old Olavian talks as well as a Getting into Medical
school evening have all taken place during these past
few months. This has been aided by the frequently high
attendance, as well as the wide range of medical interests
exhibited in the society, as demonstrated by the articles
in the Medics Journals that have been published.
Chess News
In the Kent Junior Chess Grand Prix Anantha Anilkumar
won the U14 title by a clear margin of 51 points. Raunak
Rao became the third consecutive Olavian to win the
U18 title, and, to crown the achievement, StOGS won
the championship for the seventh year, finishing 160
points ahead of second placed Sevenoaks School.
Congratulations to our chess team who beat Eton
College for a place in the quarter-finals of the ECF
National Secondary School Championships. After an
early loss, followed by a win and three draws, a nail-biting
final game saw both players down to the last few minutes
on their clocks. A blitz-style finish saw Olaves emerge
as victorious, with 3.5 points v Etons 2.5. Well done to
Anantha Anilkumar, Raunak Rao, Owen Messere, Nigel
DSouza, Zeeshan Kisat and Ammar Kisat.
0LOOHOG&KHVV7RXUQDPHQW
Despite being one of the youngest in the competition,
our team managed to secure 4th place in the Major, with
Ammar and Zeeshan Kisat each winning key matches
against England International players. Board prizes
followed after brilliant performances from captain,
Raunak Rao, and Owen Messre.
D of E
In a busy 12 months 7 students gained the highest
honour Gold. This year we have completed 4 Bronze
expeditions across the North Downs, 2 Silver across
both the North and South Downs. Despite grim
conditions for Gold in a wet Brecon before a heat wave
in Snowdonia, many passed their assessed phase with
aplomb. Thank you to all the staff who help and without
whom the programme would not function.
D of E Gold

In a testing Gold expedition over 4 days and 3 nights

in inhospitable country, students fought the 100mph
winds, driving rain and extreme mountain temperatures.
Pitching up behind dry-stone walls for protection at
nights, the groups proved that, with team work and
plenty of inner resolve, anything can be overcome.
Iham Mohamed Kasem, Edward King, Abhishek
Patel and Raunak Rao have now completed the Silver
Award. Old Olavians Alexander Bailey, Christopher
Leech, Samuel Wells, Timothy Adelani and Senthury
Jegatheeswaranathan completed their Gold Award
recently and will attend presentations at the Palace next
year.
World Challenge Honduras
In the picturesque national park of Pico Bonito, students
trekked to impressive waterfalls, built a shelter from
forest materials and foraged for edible leaves, guided
by a colleague of Bear Grylls. Creating rainforest
trails to encourage tourists gave isolated village locals
an alternative income to cutting down the rainforest.
Mayan ruins and trekking through Celaque National
Park preceded the Caribbean island of Roatan, where
students swam with turtles as the climax of a fantastic
experience.
World Challenge Expedition
From the Laos capital, Vientiane, 17 students headed into
the jungle for a trek in the humid climate. In Laos, for the
project, they painted a school building, built a new toilet
block and taught English to Bangkok village children.
After heading up the Mekong River into Thailand their
6 day trek included steep inclines, sleeping in hammocks
and close encounters with various insects. Temples and
street markets in Chaing Mai preceded a night train to
Bangkok to complete an unforgettable month.
Operation Wallacea
During the summer a group of 19 Olavian sixth formers
embarked upon a 21/2 week trip to South America,
accompanied by Ms Marwood and Dr Sidhu. Our
destination was the Pacaya-Samiria national reserve
in north-eastern Peru where we were volunteering for
conservation charity Operation Wallacea to assist in
the collection of data on the wellbeing of the upper
Amazonian rainforest. The principle aims of the research
were to investigate the effect of anthropogenic climate
change and the existing long term conservation strategy
upon biodiversity in the reserve.
The closest airport to our destination was in the
provincial city of Iquitos, where we stopped for the night
and took the opportunity to explore what is a relaxed yet
vibrant Peruvian town defined by, indeed owing its very
existence to, the river Amazon.
We continued by road to Nauta where we boarded the
Olavian 2015 51

M/F Rio Amazonas, a former rubber boom ship that

would be our home for the next 12 nights. Being over
100 years old she was a little rickety but our settling
in was facilitated by the ever cool-mannered Peruvian
handyman Aldo who had the blessing of being able to
fix whatever we managed to break - even a sink that fell
off the wall!
Aboard the Rio Amazonas we met the second group
of school students who we would be working with on
surveys. Being from Mexico we not only made good
friends with them but also learnt (through their excellent
English) about Mexican culture.
The Pacaya-Samiria reserve is located two days travelling
up river by boat from Iquitos and covers an area the size
of Wales. It is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna
that has to cope with the annual flooding of at least 95%
of the reserve. Increasingly, climate change has led to
greater flooding leading to a dramatic reduction in the
populations of ground dwelling animals as their available
habitat becomes scarcer during the wet season.
During our stay we worked closely with guides from the
local Cocama Indian community as well as university
biologists and dissertation students. Each day we all went
out on 2 or 3 surveys in small groups. These generally
involved surveying along transects of up to 5km, with
many being carried out by boat.
Of these, caimans proved the most popular. This survey
involved traveling along a 5km stretch of river after dark,
scouring the river banks with a spotlight for the telltale red eyes. If possible the guides then restrained the
caiman with a noose (or in one instance actually jumped
in on top of it!) in order to bring it aboard, whereupon
measurements were taken. Despite having suffered
massive losses at the hands of poachers and the fashion
industry during the 1970s/80s, our research showed that
black caiman numbers are now healthy, whilst dwarf
caimans were at their highest numbers for nearly a
decade.
Also very popular was the frog survey which also occurred
at night, providing us with an awesome array of stars and
the Milky Way. As well as catching a great number of
colourful frogs, there were also numerous huge insects,
including grasshoppers and cockroaches living in the
floating vegetation. Throughout our trip insects were
often an annoyance, as might be expected in a tropical
environment. By far the most feared however were the
inch long bullet ants so called because being stung by
one has been likened to being shot; fortunately no one
was subjected to this trauma during our stay, although
they were seen.
Other memorable wildlife included a variety of monkey
52 Olavian 2015

species (including the woolly, squirrel, capuchin, howler

monkeys and saddle-back tamarins), pink river dolphins,
sloths, a rarely-sighted tamandua, endangered giant
otters, piranhas, and a myriad of birds. To put the wealth
of life of this area in perspective: one survey along a 5km
transect recorded 16,000 wading birds alone!
As well as the wealth of knowledge to be found in our
guides, we learnt more about the biogeography and
conservation of the reserve and about specific animal
groups in lectures from OpWall staff, including Dr
Richard Bodmer who has studied the area for 25 years
and who we hope to welcome to St. Olaves in the near
future as a guest speaker.
Our time in the rainforest flew by and all too soon we
were leaving the Samiria river and heading back to
Iquitos. On our return journey we stopped downriver at
one of the Cocama Indian communities, where we had
a tour and an opportunity to buy locally produced gifts.
The community then treated us to a demonstration of
traditional Indian dance before inviting us to join in.
In return we presented the children with gifts we had
brought from the UK. For many, this element of the trip
was just as memorable as any of our wildlife encounters
and provided an insight into yet another distinct culture.
Before arriving back in Iquitos we also had time to
visit a manatee rescue centre. Everyone embraced the
opportunity to feed these docile creatures, although it
was rather odd seeing other animals such as monkeys
there in captivity having only recently seen them in the
wild.
After living off a diet of rice, egg and jam for breakfast and
rice or spaghetti for lunch and dinner, we all welcomed
the opportunity to indulge in eating chips once back
in Iquitos, where we spent a memorable last evening
with our Mexican friends, before retiring to the relative
luxury of our hotel. Although we shant miss the bucket
flush toilets, insect bites or being smothered in DEET,
everyone was disappointed to see the end of what was a
fantastic experience in an astonishingly vibrant part of
the world and sad to say goodbye to our new friends.
Thanks must go to Ms Marwood and Dr Sidhu and the
OpWall staff for making the trip possible, and especially
the local guides who we got to know and admire for their
wisdom and skill in the jungle: we are grateful to all of
them for what was truly a once in a lifetime experience.
By Sam Wootten and Jonathan Lancaster

Operation Wallacea

Olavian 2015 53

International Links
The new International Student Ambassador Team
presented an assembly on links with schools in India,
The Netherlands and Italy. A student visit to Mencia
de Mendoza in Holland is planned for next Easter and
students from La Martiniere School should visit us
this academic year with a reciprocal visit next year. We
recently received news from their Nature Club which
celebrated World Wetlands Day with a trip to the East
Kolkata Wetlands.
Students made a reciprocal visit to Mencia Mendoza
in Holland, helping to broaden their European
understanding.
Indian exploration.
A planning visit to La Martiniere School for Girls,
Kolkata, as part of the British Councils, Connecting
Classrooms scheme gave a flavour of both city and
school through special assemblies, basketball matches,
inaugurations of societies, the launch of an Art exhibition,
a visit to Kolkata Heritage Library of ancient books and
a trip to the Rabindranath Tagore centre. The school
has strong links with the citys Science Museum where
students use the laboratories to test out new inventions
and learn about robotics. Focusing on sustainability
and global citizenship, projects were instigated across
departments beginning with Commemorating WW1.

Lixin School
Visitors from this top Beijing school, particularly famous
for its teaching of Mathematics, had a presentation on
the school before our Student Ambassadors hosted them
for lessons and daily routines; we shall be playing host to
a further group of Chinese students in July.
Dutch Visit
Dutch students from the Goudse Waarde school,
Amsterdam, visited St. Olaves to cement international
links. After attending lessons they took part in cultural
activities and projects including Day in the Life videos
that show how school life in the Netherlands differs from
that in the UK. Students enjoyed a fun quiz on Dutch
stereotypes and an evening of bowling in Orpington and
look forward to further projects in the future.
La Martiniere
An eager group of 19 students arrived for a week as part
of our British Council Kolkata link. They spent several
days in school, hosted by our International Student
Ambassadors, experiencing Olavian lessons and sharing
presentations about La Martiniere school. The girls also
took in some of Londons attractions, including the
Tower and the Changing of the Guard. The highlight of
the week was their colourful assembly with dances from
different cultural eras in Indian history. We look forward
to the next leg when our students visit Kolkata.

Above: students from Lixin School, China

Below: students from La Martiniere School, Kolkata
Left: Students from Gourdse Waarde, Netherlands

54 Olavian 2015

Mathematics
& Computing
Specialist Status

The Faculty of Mathematics,

ICT & Computer Science

he past year has seen the Faculty sustain its

outstanding contributions to the academic plus
co-curricular aspects of school life. We live in a time of
great change mathematically at national level and so new
curriculums have been written for the new GCSE and
new teaching resources have been embedded within the
curriculum. There have continued to be developments in
the extracurricular clubs and competitions on offer. These
have enabled Olavian students to develop their problemsolving, logic, communication and team-working skills
in a variety of ways culminating in impressive results in
external plus internal examinations as well as enabling a
significant proportion of our Year 13 students to embark
upon mathematics or mathematics-related degrees at
university.
Around 85% of Year 13 students completed the A2
Mathematics course with almost half of these also
undertaking the A2 Further Mathematics course.
St Olaves is the biggest school for this demanding
qualification nationally and with an average nearly 3
times the number of students than any other similar
school. In terms of examination results, of the 140 A2
mathematics candidates 48% of entries were graded at
A* and 77% at grade A or above.
In Year 12 there was record cohort of 210 mathematicians
with a significant majority completing the double
mathematics option and hence achieved AS Levels in
both Mathematics and Further Mathematics. Overall,
the year achieved very commendable results. The results
in AS Mathematics were very similar to previous years
with around three quarters achieving the highest grade.
For Further Mathematics AS results were a pleasing 89%
A/B. The demands of completing 2 AS levels a total
6 modules in less than a year alongside 3 other subjects
should not be underestimated.
Our Year 11 students had the daunting task of following
in the footsteps of last years outstanding set of IGCSE
results. It is pleasing to report that they responded
positively to the challenge, achieving a near record of
114 out of 115 students gaining A*/A grades and many
students achieving close to full marks in one or both
of the papers. The top two sets sat the Free Standing
Unit in Additional Mathematics, an excellent extension
qualification in preparation for sixth form studies of the
subject. The results were very encouraging with a record
numbers achieving the top two grades.

56 Olavian 2015

Students in Years 7 to 10 have continued to demonstrate

their considerable ability plus enthusiasm for the subject
through impressive end-of-year assessment results plus
involvement in clubs, mathematics activity days, national
mathematics challenges plus team competitions,
attendance of mathematics clinics, involvement in the
buddy system and preparations for Olympiads.
The department has continued its intense involvement
in the United Kingdom Mathematics Trusts Junior,
Intermediate and Senior Challenges with all Olavian
students having at least two opportunities to sit each
Challenge. As ever, huge numbers of students achieved
certificates placing them well within the top half of
the selective cohort sitting the papers. In addition,
significant numbers go on to the follow-on rounds of
the Olympiads plus Kangaroos. In view of the confirmed
desire to introduce a greater problem-solving element
to public examinations, this involvement should ensure
that Olavians have been given additional opportunities
to develop this aspect of the subject and we will be
expanding this program over the coming years
Computing has continued to go from strength to
strength under Dr Onifades leadership. Two classes
completed the AS Computing course with many
excellent results. 100% of A2 Computing students
achieved A*/B. In addition, the subject has continued to
develop in Years 9 to 11 with computing now being one
of the most popular GCSE option choices. The Year 11
GCSE results were encouraging. The Key Stage 3 course
with its greater emphasis on computing skills is now well
established and should lay firm foundations for further
developments over the coming years.
There have been some new developments as a result of the
PLASMA-T LSEF project. Teachers have benefitted
from links developed with the Further Mathematics
Support Program and London Mathematics hubs.
Teachers from other schools have received training
diverse area such as: Graphical Calculator use,
GeoGebra and also in the teaching of several A level
modules and KS3/GCSE Computing training. The help
of the mathematics prefect team has been appreciated
- especially with the 240 pupils who attended the year
5 maths and science day in July. St Olaves pupils
benefitted from some of the LSEF initiatives for example
- Year 9 received a superb program using GeoGebra for
problem solving during activity week 2. A St Olaves
teacher presented a session at this years MEI conference
in Bath in June 2016.

At the end of the year the Faculty bade farewell to

Mrs Judith Cooke who has been an integral part of
the Mathematics department for many years making
significant contributions to the department. We wish her
the best as she moves onto a teaching post at Babbington
House School.
In September the Faculty welcomes two new members
of staff both Old Olavians, namely Mr Scott Li who
will teach Mathematics throughout the school plus
David Asafu-Adjaye who will complete his GTP teacher
training with us.
As I reflect upon the past year - my first year as head
of Faculty I have really appreciated the support and
hard work of all the department. I also continue to
marvel at the determination of Olavian students to
push themselves academically whilst seeking to broaden
their mathematical horizons. It has been a privilege to
oversee this last year and I look forward to another year
of exciting developments.

James Davis
Head of Mathematics

NATIONAL COMPETITIONS
Senior Mathematical Challenge
On Thursday 6th November, the Senior Mathematical
Challenge was undertaken by all students in Years 12
and 13 studying Mathematics plus the top two sets
from Year 11. Hence almost four hundred Olavians
tackled this years paper which proved to be a reasonably
accessible set of problems. Our students achieved many
very high scores and a record twelve students achieving
a score of over 100 out of a possible 125 and hence
qualifying for the prestigious follow-on round of the
British Mathematical Olympiad.
Overall, the 398 Olavian entrants managed to achieve
an outstanding 318 certificates (a record 57 gold, 124
silver and 137 bronze) representing an outstanding
80% of entrants which equaled our record of last year.
Special mention should be made of Kush Banga (13X)
who achieved the best in school with a score of 120 plus
Jacob Holleran (12N) and Richard Moulange (11J) who
achieved best-in-year results.
In addition to the twelve Olympiad qualifiers, another
record twenty-seven Olavians qualified for the Senior
Kangaroo Mathematics follow-on round on Friday
28th November. All these results continue to reflect the
excellent problem-solving abilities possessed by so many
of our students.

Senior Team Challenge

On Wednesday 26th November Alistair Haig and Mark
Dinh of year 13 and Alex Lau and William Edmonds
of year 12 visited Ravenswood School to represent St
Olaves in the regional heats of the UKMT Senior Maths
Team Challenge. After the first round they had only got
one question wrong. Following, a particularly difficult
cross number (a numerical crossword) the team had
lost no further points. A strong performance in the final
round improved our chances, but was sadly not enough
with St Olaves finishing in second place. However,
since the students had performed so well, getting just
one question incorrect, they were invited to the National
Final. Another strong performance at the final left St.
Olaves towards the top of the board. Congratulations
to all of the students for some very impressive problem
solving and mathematical reasoning.
British Mathematical Olympiad
In this years follow-on round from the Senior
Mathematical Challenge, many of the twelve Olavian
qualifiers performed creditably. The outstanding
performances were by Kush Banga and Hoan Truong of
Year 13 who were both awarded certificates of distinction.
Senior Kangaroo
In the European Senior Kangaroo competition, a record
seven students received a certificate of distinction.
They were Susannah Da Silva, Callum Melly, Owen
Messere, Isaac Van Bakel, Jonathan Day, Oliver Heath
and Richard Moulange. This achievement demonstrated
impressive problem-solving skills under considerable
time pressure.
Intermediate Mathematical Challenge
Olavian students from Years 9 to 11 achieved another
set of outstanding results in this years Intermediate
Mathematical Challenge. The 287 entrants achieved an
impressive 92 gold, 89 silver and 63 bronze certificates
with a record of eight-two students qualifying for the
follow-on rounds. All sets achieved well, but it continues
to be pleasing to note the significant proportions of
lower set students who achieve very creditable results. As
a result of this, the department has decided to enter all
Year 9 students for the Intermediate Challenge next year
and all Year 11 students for the Senior Challenge.
Eleven students qualified for the demanding Intermediate
Mathematical Olympiad consisting of six perplexing
problems. Congratulations go to Owen Messere of Year
11 who achieved an amazing, almost perfect score of 130
plus Eugene Lee (Year 10) and Cameron Martine (Year
9) who achieved best-in-year results.
An indication of the strength in depth of Olavians
problem-solving skills is the extraordinary seventy-one
students who have qualified for the European Kangaroo
Olavian 2015 57

Mathematical Challenge which consisted of a further

twenty-five multiple choice mathematical problems.

record results indicate some prodigious problem-solving

skills from our younger students.

Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad and

Kangaroo Competitions
A record eighty Olavians from Years 8 to 11 qualified
for the follow-on rounds to this years Intermediate
Mathematics Challenge. The twelve qualifiers for the
Olympiad all performed creditably with four students
achieving a certificate of distinction placing them
within the top 25% of the select cohort of qualifiers.
Congratulations go to Richard Moulange (11J),
Alec Hong (10N), Oliver Bennett (9H) and Shachin
Pratheepan (9C).

Junior Kangaroo Mathematical Challenge

This is a new national competition for students who just
missed out on the Olympiad. An incredible fifty-two St
Olaves students qualified for this twenty-five multiple
choice problems challenge. Of these, an impressive
nineteen were awarded a certificate of merit placing
them in the top 25% of scores. Congratulations go to
Gareth Saunders (8C) who achieved the best-in-school
score.

In the Kangaroo Mathematics competitions, a nearrecord twenty students achieved a certificate of merit,
again placing them in the top quarter of entries. Special
mention go to Alexander Tomlinson (11M) and Max
Nichols (9H) who achieved the best-in-school scores in
their respective competitions.
Junior Mathematical Challenge
In this years Junior Mathematical Challenge a record
94% of the 247 St Olaves Years 7 and 8 students were
awarded a certificate. These consisted of 99 gold, 87 silver
and 45 bronze certificates representing our best ever
overall results. The Year 7 cohort are to be congratulated
upon achieving the unusual feat of achieving more
certificates plus a higher average score than their Year
8 counterparts suggesting that they have exceptional
problem-solving potential!
A near-record eleven students qualified for the prestigious
Junior Mathematical Olympiad follow-on round.
In addition, an incredible further fifty-two students
qualified for the new Junior Kangaroo competition
paper. On an individual basis, George Guest (8H) and
Daniel Pereira (7L) achieved the best-in-year scores.
Junior Mathematical Olympiad
It is pleasing to report that younger Olavian
Mathematicians in Years 7 to 9 have been created
some new records in national Mathematics follow-on
competitions.
An impressive eleven students qualified for the
prestigious Junior Mathematical Olympiad designed for
the top thousand students in the Junior Mathematical
Challenge. The Olympiad consists of ten short answer,
though demanding, questions followed by six perplexing
problems requiring rigorous explanation and proof. All
students gained at least a certificate of merit and four
students attained medals : Linus Luu (7H) and Charles
Anderton (8H) were awarded gold medals placing them
in the top thirty nationally whilst George Guest (8H)
and Matthew Perry (8L) gained silver medals. These
58 Olavian 2015

UKMT Senior Team Challenge Regional

Round and National Finals
On Wednesday 26th November Alistair Haig and Mark
Dinh of year 13 and Alex Lau and William Edmonds
of year 12 visited Ravenswood School to represent St
Olaves in the regional heats of the UKMT Senior Maths
Team Challenge. After the first round they had only got
one question wrong. Following, a particularly difficult
crossnumber (a numerical crossword) the team had lost
no further points. A strong performance in the final
round improved our chances, but was sadly not enough
with St Olaves finishing in second place. However,
since the students had performed so well, getting just
one question incorrect they were invited to the National
Final. Another strong performance at the final left St.
Olaves towards the top of the board. Congratulations
to all of the students for some very impressive problem
solving and mathematical reasoning.
UKMT Team Mathematics Challenge
Regional Final
On 25th March St. Olaves hosted the regional final of
the UKMT Team Maths Challenge for thirty-seven
local schools. The St. Olaves team consisted of Mehar
Bijral(9C), Shachin Pratheepan (9C), Matthew Perry
(8L) and George Guest (8H) who had to undertake
four rounds of very tough problems in various formats
throughout the day. The Olaves team made easy work
of the first set of questions, gaining a maximum score

UKMT Junior Maths Team Challenge team

Kit Harris and Luke Abraham (2004 2011) in September

to lead our first ever Oxbridge Mathematics Symposium.
They are second year Mathematics undergraduates from
Oxford and Cambridge respectively. They presented
engaging proofs of various assumptions which are taken
for granted at pre-university Mathematics and gave
insightful commentaries on the Oxbridge admissions
process to members of Years 12 and 13. We aim to repeat
and develop this opportunity in future years.

UKMT Team Challenge

in round 1. The fiendish cross-number round was also

completed very well, with the team losing just 1 point
out of a possible 60. Unfortunately, one small error led to
a more significant loss of points in round 3, and although
there was a strong performance in the final relay round,
St. Olaves were just beaten by a strong Alleyns team.
UKMT Team Challenge National Final
Despite finishing runners up in the regional final we
hosted in March, the St Olaves team qualified for the
National Finals in London on June 22nd. After a slow
start in the group problem solving round, they acquitted
themselves admirably in the remaining three rounds
including a cross number and a relay to finish a very
creditable 25th out of 96 teams. In view of the successes
in this years Olympiad, the prospects for success next
year are most promising.
Win At Schools National Final
Well done to our team - Tannay Vankayalapati, Hari
Patel, Thomas Halton and Swastik Gupta - who
qualified for the International Centre for Statistical
Education final and came away with a 500 prize for
the school. The event was hosted by Dr Vicky Neale,
Whitehead Lecturer at the Mathematical Institute and
Balliol College, Oxford.
OTHER ACTIVITIES AND CLUBS
Mathematical Lecture
In April, the Olavian Mathematical Society continued
its programme of lectures with former student Luke
Abraham, currently reading Mathematics at St Johns
College, University of Cambridge, returning to provide
a highly entertaining lecture under the title Minus a half
factorial and other nonsensical questions. The lecture
certainly broadened our horizons mathematically and
not a few quizzical faces left the Chapel that evening!
Oxbridge Mathematics Symposium
The School was delighted to welcome back Old Olavians

Royal Institution Maths Masterclasses

Six Year 9 students had the opportunity to extend their
mathematical horizons by attending Mathematics
Masterclasses at Bromley High School on Saturday
mornings during the Autumn term. The sessions involved
exploring more advanced and abstract topics, often
beyond the scope of traditional mathematics lessons. In
the words of one student, the emphasis on proof and
rigour provided both challenge and satisfaction.
Maths in Motion Club
The Jaguar Cars Maths in Motion Club has continued
to be very enthusiastically and ably run by Peter Leigh,
Iain McGowan and Matthew Burns from Year 13.
Students have an opportunity to use their mathematical
and arithmetic skills to design and fine-tune their racing
cars in order seek places on the podium in races around
simulations of various formula 1 race tracks.
St Olaves qualified for the national final of the Jaguar
Maths in Motion Challenge for Schools, a computerbased competition where students design and race
cars around virtual Formula 1 circuits in a variety of
driving conditions. Eddie Ho and Abhay Gupta of
7H competed against eleven other teams in their age
group at the Heritage Motor Centre near Banbury on
Wednesday 26th June. The computer-based competition
involved designing a formula 1 racing car in the light of
information given about a track and conditions. After
a fiercely contested race, Eddie and Abhay achieved a
very creditable 7th place in their age group. This is the
first time we have reached this stage of the competition
and its achievement is a testament to the outstanding
training, support and encouragement provided over
several years by Peter Leigh, who accompanied the team
on the day, Iain McGowan and Matthew Burns-Watkins
of the Upper VI.
Maths Puzzles
1. ABCD is a parallelogram. Points Q are the midpoints
of BC and Dc respectively. The diagonal DB cuts AQ at
E and AP at F. Prove that DE= EF=FB.
2. Prove Varignons theorem(1731): the figure formed
when the midpoints of the sides of a quadrilateral are
joined in order is a parellelogram and its area is half that
of the quadrilateral.
Olavian 2015 59

Science

Specialist Status

National Competitions
The Faculty of Science
This academic year has seen the Science Faculty buildings
undergo some dramatic transformations. Initially the
scene was one of industry and apparent chaos as the
builders moved in, with corridors and staircases closing,
often at short notice, and digging and drilling resulting
in challenging noise levels. In April, two new, bright and
well equipped laboratories emerged from the process, and
we start the new academic year with a science building fit
for purpose and able to accommodate the large numbers
of students studying the subject. Thanks must go to the
PA who, through their tireless fundraising, have enabled
us to fully equip the new labs.
This year saw some excellent exam results in all the
sciences, with many students gaining places as the top
universities and 24 going on to medical schools. There
were further successes in the national Olympiads for
Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Particular mention
should go to two students: Tom Wang who gained
the Roentgenium award in the Cambridge Chemistry
Challenge, which put him in the top 0.7% in the
country and earned him a place at a Summer School
in Cambridge; and Akhil Sonthi, whose AS challenge
mark put him in the top five Physics students in the
country. Akhil was presented with his award at a special
ceremony at the Royal Society, and the school was given
data logging equipment as a result of his success.

The Sixth Form societies continue to thrive, producing

several outstanding journals during the year, and there
has been a move towards a more investigative approach
in the lower school societies with many students now
registered for the Crest Award scheme.
A range of trips provided extension and enrichment
beyond the curriculum with new activities being
introduced for Year 8 and 9 in activities weeks. A level
Physics students enjoyed an exciting trip to the Large
Hadron Collider at Cern, and Year 12 biologists once
again spent a week at Nettlecombe Court in Somerset
studying the ecology of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
In July 2015, 19 Sixth Form students took part in an
Operation Wallacea expedition to the Amazon Basin in
Peru, where they worked alongside Peruvian ecologists
and British academics on a range of biodiversity surveys.
With increasing student numbers, we are joined in 2015
by two new staff members, Mr Jonathon Very (Physics)
and Mr Simon Holleran (Chemistry). The Science
Faculty continues to growth in strength and depth and
we look forward to another productive year ahead.

Caroline Marwood
S___Head of Science Faculty

Year 10 making rockets in

activity week 2
Olavian 2015 61

BIOLOGY
Biology Olympiad
Of the 11 students who sat the extremely challenging
British Biology Olympiad, two students, Abhishek
Patel and Eamon Hassan, were awarded Gold medals
and three achieved Silver medals - Susannah Da Silva,
Stephen Chan and Katrina West. Congratulations to
Eamon Hassan who has been invited to the second
round of the competition.
National Biology Challenge
Congratulations to the 59 Year 10 Biology students who
were awarded medals. These included 7 Golds for Jeron
Thaiparampil, Henry Miller, Kameron Swanson, Ishaan
Lal, Niko Kristic, Daniel Maghsoudi and Hari Patel,
placing them in the top 5% of the national cohort, as
well as 21 Silver and 31 Bronze.
Natural History Museum
The Science Faculty challenge for Year 7s to research
and document three interesting areas for presentation
back to the class saw many head for the T-Rex and other
dinosaurs. The Earth Sciences exhibit aroused interest
with its topical focus on earthquakes, volcanoes and
geological formations.

show that it is important for members of a species to

have a connection with other members of the species,
for survival. I particularly enjoyed the section where you
were allowed to walk through a life-sized model of a
termite mound, and see a model spider being fully taken
apart.
I liked the Earth Galleries where there was a re-creation
of a Kobe supermarket; the location of a 7.4 magnitude
earthquake occurring as a result of plate movement along
the Philippines, Pacific and Eurasian tectonic plates. We
also saw some real volcanic rock which turned out to be
magnetic, which I really did not expect as it didnt look
like iron, cobalt or nickel. I also saw lava which had been
spun by the wind to look like hair.
In the Human Biology section was a round table with
people sitting round it. Each of us sees things at a
different angle but a young child would not be able to
understand the things can be seen differently by other
people. We were able to work out how each person
saw the things on the table. There were lots of optical
illusions such as staring at a bird, then at a cage, and
suddenly the bird would be in the cage! This section was
full of interactive things that showed how our brains
react when we are under stress and how our eyes can

In Activity Week 1, we went to the Natural history

Museum. We travelled on the train to our destination,
and after a long and tiring journey, we finally arrived.
It was an amazing scene. The first thing we saw was a
skeleton of a Diplodocus.
One of my favourite displays was the great blue whale. The
blue whale weighs up to 200 tons thats approximately
the same weight as 276 men! This was very interesting
as there was a model of the whale and the skeleton, so
we could compare them. I could also see the bristles of
the whale where plankton would be sucked through the
whales mouth.
In the Natural History Museum I liked the giant
Tyrannosaurus Rex because it isnt every day that you
can see a giant robotic dinosaur that can move in several
directions! I think scientists would have needed a lot
of imagination, clues and expert puzzle solvers to put
together a real life model of such a ferocious hunter.
One of the things I found fascinating was that birds
may have evolved from dinosaurs. There is evidence that
a timid sparrow could have evolved from something as
ferocious as a velociraptor.
I also liked the ants in the Creepy Crawlies section of
the museum because you can fully see the ants at work,
and how the community in a colony of ants can help
each other out. There are different sized ants that guard,
build or support the nest and it is a fantastic sight. They
62 Olavian 2015

Year 9 receiving a presentation about birds of prey

Biology Field Trip 2015

Olavian 2015 63

deceive us if we look from a certain angle while doing

tasks. I loved the memory game because it taught me a
lot of new things about my own memory, for example, a
weapon can distract your eyes from the criminals face.
The model of the baby with the umbilical cord intrigued
me. It showed how a foetus would look and I was
absolutely fascinated by the rest of the human body
section.

23 Copper. Outshining even these achievements was

a special Roentgenium Award for Tom Wang who, we
think, gained the highest mark in the country.
Chemistry Olympiad 2015
Students performed exceptionally well in the 47th
International Chemistry Olympiad 2015, UK Round 1
achieving 2 Gold, 5 Silver and 4 Bronze Awards.
PHYSICS

CHEMISTRY

Experimental Chemistry Society

This year, by popular demand, there has been more focus
on fire and explosions! This has included an investigation
into which brand of jelly baby is best in the Screaming
Jelly Baby experiment a great result for Lidl! The
group recently designed different rockets using a range
of substances including potassium nitrate or ethanol,
launching them with varying degrees of success and
thankfully no injuries.
Cambridge Chemistry Challenge
In a fantastic display of intellect, Ian Chiang, Anna
Fatunla, Peter Gibbs, Daniel Jenkins and Kenneth
Liugained Gold Awards; 6 others gained Silver and

Physics trip to CERN

Year 13 students visited the Large Hadron Collider in
Geneva, viewing exhibits on the origins of Physics, the
superconducting magnets fabrication hall and the inside
of the Compact Muon Solenoid detector where evidence
of the Higgs Boson was collected. Visits to the History
of Science Museum and a boat trip on Lake Geneva
rounded off an intense but enjoyable weekend.
Physics Olympiad
After finishing in the top 5 students in the country in the
Physics AS Challenge, Akhil Sonthi was invited to the
Royal Society for the British Physics Olympiad Awards
ceremony, having an opportunity to view artefacts by Sir
Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle.

Year 13 trip to CERN

64 Olavian 2015

English & Drama

The Faculty of English & Drama

ur year was dominated by stellar performances

both in examinations and theatre at school and
in London. Our students produced some excellent
productions which included The History Boys, Twelfth
Night, a joint production with the Classics Department
of The Bacchae and an afternoon soiree with the Junior
Olavian Players. This was rounded off by a whole school
production of Oliver! directed by Miss Wilkie. The extracurricular programme enriches the students lives and
ours developing the essential empathetic and creative
skills honed through study of language and literature.
Being involved in a school production is a marvellous
opportunity for team work and self-discipline as well as
an opportunity to build self-confidence and performance
skills. Our talented directors, Jack Bradfield, Matthew
Roberts, Adrian Lamoury, Daniel Finucane and Joseph
Cordrey, have demonstrated initiative and creativity
along with superb leadership skills and dedication.
Working with the Music Department on Oliver! was
remarkably rewarding, with everyone enjoying the
atmosphere generated by a large audience.
Our sixth form Theatre Society, which is open to all,
continues to thrive. Last year we took 85 students to
see an eclectic mix of Electra, James III, Gypsy and The
Play That Goes Wrong. Visiting the theatre is culturally
enriching and always provokes lots of discussion amongst
our members. It is always a pleasure to accompany so
many charming and courteous young people. On a
smaller scale we also organise visits to performances
of our set texts or complementary productions to help
bring the text and its context to life. So we capitalised
on the revenge tragedy season at the Sam Wannamaker
playhouse at the Globe.
It has become tradition to take year 7 to the Globe in
March for a schools production and this year was no
exception. The boys enjoyed the use of zip wires to
deliver the players to the stage, as if descending from
helicopters in a modern war zone, for Othello. They were
able to appreciate Iagos Machiavellian machinations
and Cassios easy manners that make him the target of
Othellos jealousy. During the activities weeks we make a
point of taking the younger students on a backstage tour
at the National Theatre which helps them understand the
logistics of putting on a show and preparing costumes
and props and hopefully encourages them all to become
theatre goers.
The extra-curricular programme was enhanced by a new

66 Olavian 2015

venture that targeted the talented year 7s and 8s who

formed the Junior Olavian Players. We were delighted to
welcome back senior students to support this initiative
and direct our budding thespians. Our thanks go to
Theo Antonov, Jack Bradfield, Louis Cokell, Fergus
MacDonald and Luke Smith.
We are already busy planning and organising visits for
next year which will include The Marriage of Figaro
at the Royal Opera House, Benedict Cumberbatchs
Hamlet and a Theatre Society trip to Our Countrys
Good at the National Theatre. Several student directed
productions are already underway and Miss Wilke has
great plans for a Christmas show in December, a night
of extracts from musicals in our Showstoppers night in
February and a whole school play in March.

Liz Goodman
S___Head of English Faculty

Theatre Society visits

James III: A True Mirror was full of bawdy humour,
contemporary and historical satire and profanity. Jamie
Sives, as King James, elicited an addictive combination of
hatred and fondness for his regal character; Sofie Grbl
as Queen Margaret displayed terrific stage presence
and authority with flair for humour. One left with the
satisfaction of knowing the answer to a uniquely Scottish
question: Just what do they wear under their kilts?
Year 8 see The Dreamers.
Year 8s were treated to the world premiere of The
Dreamers, performed by the Virgin Soldiers ,a six-piece
Strock band, along with a young cast of talented, local
singers. The story depicted the bravery of soldiers sent

Senior Debating Team

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

English students enjoyed an atmospheric production of
Tis Pity at the new candlelit Indoor Theatre. The lively,
often hilarious, but bloody performance brought this
revenge tragedy to life.
Cranmer Awards
Congratulations to Richard Decker who, despite stiff
competition, won first place in the Rochester heat of
the Cranmer Awards for reading from the Book of
Common Prayer.

aboard HMS Hythe to fight at Gallipoli in WW1 and

also featured celebrity readers such as Michael Buerke,
Tim Rice and Amanda Redman.

Alan Brownjohn Poetry Prize

Self Similarish by Fintan Calpin won this top
international award attracting entries from as far away
as the Hwa Chong Institute in Singapore. Fintan, now
in his first year reading English at Wadham College,
Oxford, is described by his teacher as a true poet. Well
done also to Michael Sun in Year 8 who was highly
recommended.

Debating
The Senior Debating team have been busy this
term, attending a workshop before competing in the
Cambridge Schools competition, only narrowly missing
going through to the next round.

Remember
Prizes were presented to 3 budding poets, Nathan Jossa,
Yannick Springer-Hughes and Jack Bradfield, who
crafted very successful entries to this years competition
on the theme Remember.

Theatre Society
After the 5 star reviews students were excited to see
Electra for themselves. It was an intense experience
at The Old Vic with Kirsten Scott Thomas giving an
incredible performance in the lead role. Although some
of the supporting cast were not quite as strong it was a
great evening to round off the year.

Public Speaking Training

Years 9 and 10 enjoyed a day of professional training
in active workshops. All rose to the challenge and each
student presented a 3 minute speech demonstrating
their skill and intellect.

Visit to the Globe Theatre

Playwriting Group
The group was fortunate to see two National Theatre
productions. Three Winters, a by Tena tivii, directed
by Howard Davies focussed on Croatia from 1945 to
2011, from the remnants of monarchy to Communism,
democracy, war and the EU. The Kos family argued,
adapted, fell in and out of love and gave us an insight
into life in troubled Croatia. In contrast DV8s John,
was a brutal, but moving piece of verbatim theatre about
one mans life, with stunning movement combined with
a powerful simplicity of the language.
The History Boys
Congratulations on another outstanding upper school
production, this time directed by Matthew Roberts and
Adrian Lamoury. The play focuses on a group of boys at
a grammar school with ambitions of reading History at
Oxford University, a subject many of our own students
can identify with! The more controversial themes were
treated with great sensitivity creating some poignant
moments.

Othello
All Year 7 touched base with our roots at The Globe
where Shakespeare was presenting his plays at the time
when St. Olaves Grammar School was founded. As a
short hail storm subsided, soldiers zip wired into Cyprus
in a 20th Century setting, to celebrate their success
against the Ottoman Empire. The boys quickly picked
up on Iagos duplicity and Othellos naivety before a
TV interview in which they acquitted themselves with
typical Olavian confidence.

Young Olavian drama project

Olavian 2015 67

Poetry
Attendees at Poetry for an Enlightened Age at UCLs
Institute of Education were treated to a fine evening of
entertainment with guest of honour, Roger McGough,
Dr John Wedgewood Clarke, Jane Duran and Suzanna
Fitzpatrick. Our own Fintan Calpin and Jack Bradfield
spoke with passion and humour as they rubbed shoulders
with one of Great Britains most celebrated poets.
Film Workshop
Year 8s visited the Institute of Education and presented
to a cohort of student teachers about their experience of
making a film in the classroom. We were delighted that
delegates noted their mature, reflective approach and the
clarity and confidence with which they spoke.
Bromley Speakout!
Ivan Tregear won a Jack Petchey Foundation Award for
Outstanding Achievement for his work as a volunteer
shipmate at the Ahoy Centre in Deptford, a charity
which helps disadvantaged and disabled youngsters

to participate in sailing and rowing. Ivan also won

the Bromley Speakout! Final with a speech entitled
Reactions, about the consequences of human actions
and the importance of making the right choices.
Young Writers
This Group runs weekly in the Main Library with help
from Oliver Bennett of Year 9. Students are encouraged
to write creatively using a particular theme as a stimulus.
Subjects covered include Literary Extracts, London, a
Glorious City! and Ghost Stories.
English and Drama
Literature students attended a study day in Cambridge
on the tensions in civilisation and education. Led by
Dr Fred Parker of Clare College, students developed
alternative readings of Shakespeares The Tempest;
explored contentious interpretations around the idea
of educating and civilising Caliban; looked at the plays
sources, Montaigne and Ovid, and considered the power
of transformation and masque.

The cast, crew and orchestra for Oliver

The History Boys

68 Olavian 2015

The Bacchae

National Theatre
Three of our students, Michaela James, Peter
Debenham and Jack Bradfield made it onto the longlist for the National Theatre playwriting competition.
Congratulations to Jack Bradfield whose play has now
been shortlisted and will receive a rehearsed reading at
The National.

Visit by poet Jane Duran

Theatre Society
Students visited The Globes beautiful new indoor
theatre for Middleton and Rowleys 1622 masterpiece
The Changeling. The production was shocking with
murders and sexual control creating the sense of a
society hiding extensive sins and corruption. Somehow
there were still moments of humour in the sub plot with
noblemen pretending to be madmen and fools close to
the old doctors beautiful, young wife.
Public Speaking Training
Years 9 and 10 enjoyed a day of professional training
in active workshops. All rose to the challenge and each
student presented a 3 minute speech demonstrating their
skill and intellect.
Remembrance
A number of Old Olavians joined us for our Remembrance
Service on Tuesday. Graham Milne and the Captain
of School, Teddy McAleer, placed the wreaths by
the schools memorial which had been presented by
King George V and Queen Mary. On Wednesday the
English department also led an assembly on the theme
of remembrance with poetry that arose from the grim
reality of WW1 recited by students.
Oliver
This sparkling triumph saw over 60 students in a fantastic
performance of this well-loved musical. Matthew Perry
and Joshua Williams-Ward impressed as the unfortunate
orphan Oliver, joining an endearing chorus of workhouse
boys; Jonathan Leechs Fagin oozed cunning alongside
James Pyles suave Dodger. Alicia Harris was stunning
as Nancy, mixing defiance with dependence on the
terrifying Bill Sykes, performed by the talented Robert
Pattinson. Peter Debenham and Verity Andrew were
terrific as the unhappily married Bumbles, with Haniel
Whitmore and Sarah Cronks Sowerberrys delivering
Thats Your Funeral with unabashed enjoyment.

Poetry
Jack Bradfields poem Muse de Cluny was a runner
up in The Oxonian Reviews 2015 poetry competition,
judged by the poet Jamie McKendrick, and will be
published in the Review towards the end of April.
Jennifer Stevens was long-listed in the Young Romantics
poetry competition for her poem Lost Angels, with
judge and Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, reading from
her own poems at the awards night.
Twelfth Night
Well done to those involved in the spring production of
Shakespeares Twelfth Night or What You Will. This
was the last school show for several of our talented Year
13s who have been involved in numerous memorable
performances.
Chartwell
In the beautiful grounds of Churchills home, Chartwell,
Saint Olaves won First Prize in the Sixth Form round at
the Churchill Public Speaking competition. John Power,
Conor Watson, Leo Henderson and Celeste Cardew
enjoyed the company of Churchills great grandson,
Randolph Churchill, who was clearly impressed at the
high standard of the speakers.
Poets and Playwrights
Our friend and mentor Jane Duran returned to St. Olaves
to inspire our students to write their own creative poetry.
She worked with Year 7s and 8s, exploring imagery and
how to craft it into a poem, before speaking to Literature
Society, sharing one of her poems and some tips on how
to critique our own writing.

The cast of Twelfth Night

Olavian 2015 69

Theatre Society
Students have enjoyed an eclectic mix of productions this
year starting with one of the James plays at The National,
followed by the Greek Tragedy Electra, then the farcical
The Play That Goes Wrong and, most recently, the
musical Gypsy at The Savoy Theatre with a powerful
performance by Imelda Staunton.
Activity Week 1
Doctor Johnson said, when a man is tired of London he
is tired of life. It was a sentiment years 7 and 9 shared
after an exciting two days exploring the sights, sounds
and smells of London led by the English department.
Year 9 had been dipping into a selection of writers work
considering how they portrayed the River Thames in
their poetry and prose. We explored Wordsworths Upon
Westminster Bridge, Conrads Heart of Darkness,
Dickens Bleak House and Duffys Jubilee Lines
- learning how writers have used the river to convey
change and transformation. Students were encouraged
to think about the Thames as a canvas onto which a wide
range of dreams, hopes, anxieties and nightmares have
been projected.
We then explored further. One group completed a river
walk from Rotherhithe to London Bridge, dropping in
to the White Cube. Another toured Dr Johnsons House
on Gough Square and then walked over the Millennium
Bridge away from St Pauls. A third started at the Portrait
Gallery exploring self-portraits and walked back to the
Southbank. The Latinists visited the Defining Beauty
exhibition at the British Museum, exploring Greek and
Roman influence on architecture and art.
Back in the classroom, students have been asked to craft
their own response to the Thames in poetry or prose and
illustrate their work with drawings or photographs.
On the Friday, year 7 exchanged the river walk for a
visit to the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square.

We were lucky enough to catch the Changing of the

Guard at Horse Guards and at Buckingham Palace. Art
historian and author Bridget Crowley led two separate
workshops, one in the morning on myths and legends
followed by travel writing in the afternoon. Using the
paintings and artefacts as inspiration she encouraged the
boys to tackle speech writing, take a dogs perspective
on life and then write as though they were crossing the
Bridge of Sighs in Venice on their way to prison. She was
delighted with the boys creativity and craftsmanship and
impressed by their behaviour and enthusiasm.
Activity Week 2
An extraordinary birds-eye view of Spitfires and
Hurricanes roaring across London was the highlight of
Year 8s part in last weeks activities.
Pupils saw the aircraft fly underneath them from the 69th
Floor of the Shard office building. The planes were on
their way to Buckingham Palace where the Queen and
the Royal family were celebrating the 75th anniversary
of the start of the Battle of Britain.
And the group went higher still to the Shards 72nd
floor which, open to the elements, is 800 foot high and
planted with agapanthus and stocks.
The view from here stretches 30 miles with prime sights
being Tower Bridge, St Pauls, The Oval cricket ground,
Canary Wharf and the North Downs.
Year eight were also treated to an interactive dance
experience at City Hall and some joined a behind the
scenes tour of Tower Bridge. The day concluded with
some mudlarking on the Thames bank in front of Tate
Modern. Among the discoveries were clay pipes from
the 17th century, Victorian pottery shards and a rather
grisly, gnarled tooth.
It was a busy week for year 8 which started with a city
cruise from Tower Hill to Westminster followed by a
guided tour of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster
Abbey and The Mall with plenty of reference to
London s rich literary tradition.
Midweek, school based activities tested the groups
creativity with a film making workshop. The theme was
the Pyramus and Thisbe story followed by a performance
of A Midsummer Nights dream in the Great Hall. In an
inventive production five actors played all the roles with
the aid of clever stage trickery to suspend the audiences
disbelief.

In London for activities week

70 Olavian 2015

Library

Library News

he Main and Sixth Form Libraries have been

utilized regularly this year by students in the lower
and upper schools.

Favourite Book Character stickers and encouraged both

students and staff to wear one and discuss their favourite
characters with others which proved to be fun.

Last December I recruited some parent volunteers

to assist me with the running of both libraries and I
am very fortunate that I now have an established and
hardworking team to whom I am very grateful. I have
also been assisted by my group of Student Library
Assistants and, again, am very appreciative of their help.

At the beginning of the year I held an induction session

for the new Year 7 and Year 12 classes welcoming the
new students into the libraries. I also delivered a book
talk to Year 8 and a careers session for Year 11. In April,
Laura Cooper (a PGCE German teacher) and I launched
Poetry Club for students in Years 7 to 9. This club gives
the members an opportunity to read and discuss poetry
based on a variety of themes including humour, horror
and Shakespearean sonnets. Students also create their
own poetry which is on display at numerous times in the
Main Library. Young Writers, our creative writing club,
also continues to grow and is run very successfully by a
student in Year 10.

Both libraries have undergone a number of alterations

this year. In the Main Library, we have recategorised
the non-fiction section and changed the layout of the
library slightly in order to improve access. We have also
increased the seating arrangements in the Sixth Form
Library to accommodate the larger number of students
now in Years 12 and 13.
I have bought a number of new books for the two
libraries including some new Biology, Chemistry and
Physics titles for the Sixth Form Library.
We celebrated World Book Day in March in various
ways with quizzes and displays including a Student
Book Board where students were able to chat about
books to their friends through book reviews and
recommendations. We also held a Guess the number
of books in the libraries competition where students
could guess how many books are in the Main or Sixth
Form Libraries or guess the overall total housed in
both libraries which is 15000. I produced some My

72 Olavian 2015

We have produced a number of displays in the Main

Library which promoted Poetry club and celebrated
various book genres such as horror which tied in with
Halloween.
This year has been a very busy but enjoyable one and I
look forward to working in both libraries with my team
of parent volunteers and Student Library Assistants
during the coming year.

Catherine Beck
S___Librarian

Chaplaincy

014-15 has been another very full year for the School
Chaplaincy, with regular Chapel services and a broad
range of special events as well as the Chaplains day-today pastoral support for students, parents and staff.

Chapel. A group of Sixth Form students has continued

to lead the Senior Christian Union, giving opportunities
for Y12 and Y13 students to lead prayers and Bible study
discussions.

The academic year started with our annual Chapel

weekend away at Carroty Wood Activities Centre near
Tonbridge. In former years this had taken place in June,
but this year moved to September, which allowed the
new Year 7 intake to participate alongside older students.
The move proved very successful, with a record number
of students attending this time. As well as enjoying great
food and activities in an idyllic rural environment, the
students had an opportunity to explore aspects of the
Christian faith through scheduled sessions and informal
discussion times. This year we looked at the story of
Joseph and his brothers, which touches on some of the
Bibles big themes of guilt, suffering and salvation, and
ultimately shows us that Gods love for his creation
triumphs over all adversity.

Meanwhile the Chaplains weekly discussion group Firm

Foundations, which is aimed particularly at boys in Y7 to
Y11, has covered a wide range of exciting and sometime
controversial topics, including If you died tonight, and
God asked you: Why should I let you into heaven?,
what answer would get you in? Then in the end-of-term
special event known as Roast the Reverend, the Chaplain
was subjected to a quick-fire barrage of difficult questions
put by the students.

The annual Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving

in Southwark Cathedral on 23rd April was led by the
Cathedral Sub-Dean, with the Right Reverend Paul
Williams, Bishop of Kensington as our guest preacher.
The service featured student presentations on the theme
of Foundations for Life, and anthems performed by
the Chamber Choir. Special services were also held for
Harvest, Remembrance, Christmas and Passiontide (at
the end of the spring term), with a Farewell service for
leavers in July.
The Staff Prayer Meeting has continued to run this
year under the leadership of David Bowden, while the
Parents Prayer Group has met twice a term in the School

74 Olavian 2015

The schools voluntary service programme known as the

Le Chavetois Society has continued to grow, with over
fifty Year 12 students involved this year in community
projects ranging from healthcare to charity fundraising.
We were also able to maintain our strong links with St
Pauls Cray Church of England Primary School, where
our students helped the younger classes with reading and
writing, and ran a maths club for older children.
The academic year ended with the Revd Andrew
McClellan bidding farewell to St Olaves after six very
happy years as School Chaplain. He leaves in order
to devote more time to work in his parish of St John
the Evangelist Bromley (www.saintjohnsbromley.
com). Father Paul Keown takes over as the new School
Chaplain in September 2015.

Andrew McClellan
S___Chaplain

Music

A Year of Music

any excellent musical moments pervade the

industrious hub that has been St Olaves over the
past year. Responsible for a number of these was our
newest member of staff to join the fold, Sarah Westley.
In at the deep end, Miss Westley trained the St Olaves
School Choir for the Christmas Concert, which gave an
accomplished performance of Vivaldis Gloria. She also
fronted our two mid-term Chapel concerts in November
and June, which gave some of our budding concert
soloists and small ensembles the platform to present
in front of an eternally supportive audience of friends
and family members. She also arranged for our A-level
musicians to join with others from across the country in
attending a live seminar-concert, given by members of
the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It is always a treat
to hear the study works, found on CD recordings and in
printed anthologies, brought to life in this way.

skilful arrangements. We congratulate her as she takes

up her organ scholarship at Girton College Cambridge.
Additionally, it is important not to overlook the many
practical exam passes several of which were at the highest
levels the various accolades in regional and national
competitions and also the continued participation of
Olavians at the junior music conservatoires. Speaking
on behalf of the Music Department, we are very proud of
the students responsible for these and the great number
of other musical accomplishments and we look forward
to another year of the same.

Also at our Christmas Concert, we heard from the

now well-established Brass Band, Jazz Band and
Chamber Choir. The Symphony Orchestra delighted
with its performances of Bizets Carillon from the
suite LArlsienne and Tchaikovskys famous Rose
Adagio from his ballet Sleeping Beauty. As if by magic,
the Symphony Orchestra then transmogrified into the
pit band for the joint Drama and Music production
of Barts Oliver! (Olavians are not just talented, they
are also multi-faceted!) The show was a huge success,
playing to a matinee audience consisting of our friends
from local primary schools and then two further evening
performances. Such a large-scale operation is no mean
feat and congratulations must go to the cast, to the band
and to those oft-unsung heroes on the technical crew for
their dedication and hard work. Another major highlight
in the calendar was of course the four-yearly visit to St
Georges Chapel Windsor, where the choristers of the
Queens Chapel of the Savoy sang alongside the resident
choir for the members of the Royal Victorian Order,
with Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness
The Duke of Edinburgh, amongst other royalty, in
attendance.

Mid-Term Concert
Congratulations to: the Guitar Ensemble and
Intermediate Strings who provided polished
performances; the Morrell Duo for a rousing Liszt piano
duet, Harry Stanbury for his very musical Somewhere
over the Rainbow, Eric and Ivan Leung for their
accomplished cello playing and Alex Lau for sending us
home with a virtuosic performance of Kapustin.

As with every year, there were again innumerable

successes amongst the very gifted Olavian musicians,
certainly too many to list here. I would however like
to give special mention to Lucy Morrell who, having
set her heart on reading Music at university, embarked
upon a campaign to be involved in almost everything
musical that moved! She played organ in almost all
of the assemblies during the year (to my great relief ),
even weaving many well-known tunes into her own
76 Olavian 2015

Matthew Price
S___Director of Music

Christmas Concert
A warm reception from family-members, friends and
loyal supporters greeted the schools senior choirs and
instrumental ensembles after weeks of preparation
leading up to the night. Under the baton of Miss
Westley, in her first end-of-term concert, the Choir
gave an impressive performance of Vivaldis popular
Gloria. Symphony Orchestra delivered melodies by
Bizet and Tchaikovsky, and Jazz Band and Brass Band
both had toes tapping well after the end of the evening.
Congratulations to everyone involved.
Mid-Term Concert
Congratulations to all the talented students who featured
in the mid-term concert. There were outstanding
individual performances and some impressive ensemble
playing from the Karnatic Music group, the String
Orchestra, the Jazz band and the Vocal Ensemble
Music Recitals
AS and A2 students performed their recitals with
sensitivity and impressive technical skill to family, friends
and teachers in The Great Hall, singing and playing on
the piano, violin and trombone. Lucy Morrell took us on

a journey through four ages of piano music before Alex

Lau rounded off a showcase of high quality with some
sparkling virtuoso playing.
Musical Achievements
Lucy Morrell has been busy developing her impressive
talents as an organist. Following an invitation by Old
Olavian Noel Tredinnick, she tackled the massive
4-manual Harrison organ and the 3 manual Willis
console at All Souls Langham Place, unleashing the full
power and glory of these instruments, taking to them, in
Noels words, like a duck to water.

showcased at the Summer Fun Day.

Commemoration
The magnificent Southwark Cathedral played host to
our Annual Commemoration Service, resounding to
splendid music from the Chamber Choir, Brass Band
and student organist Lucy Morrell. The Right Reverend
Paul Williams, Bishop of Kensington, gave a thoughtprovoking address on building good foundations for life.

LPO BrightSparks Concert

GCSE musicians were fortunate to be counted amongst
the hundreds of young people at the Royal Festival
Hall for the LPO BrightSparks GCSE concert, with
extracts of symphonic works by Mozart, Haydn, Berlioz,
Liszt, Rachmaninov and Saint-Sans. Members of the
orchestra also talked about the composers lives and
details to listen out for. Two Olavians secured their
fifteen minutes of fame when they were chosen to
share their reactions on camera!
RVO Concert
Our Choristers of the Queens Chapel of the Savoy had a
fabulous experience joining with those from St Georges
to sing for The Royal Victorian Order service at Windsor
Castle. In the presence of Her Majesty the Queen, HRH
The Duke of Edinburgh, other members of the Royal
Family and Medallists of the Order, the boys sang music
by John Ireland and Dr Henry Bromley-Derry MVO.

Choristers in the Quad

Jazz Spectacular
Those who attended were treated to a fabulous display of
musical talent with the Jazz Band on top form under the
expert direction of Nick Beston (now for the 27th year).
The star of the show, however, was the sparkling virtuoso
playing of Harry the Piano returning for his second visit
to St. Olaves.
Mid Term Concert
A healthy audience supported a wide variety of musical
performances and compositions. Highlights included
sensitive solos from Udgama Tyagi on the piano and
Sam Jolly on the Clarinet, with a very impressive premier
of Alex Laus own Piano Sonata No 1. Summer strings
and Shouvik Chakrabortys arrangement of the Imagine
Dragons track Demons, sent us off into the night with a
toe-tapping mambo.
Samba Workshop
The Music Department resounded with the grooves of
Brazilian festival music, with Year 8s learning to be
samba bands. Some even added choreography, in a style
which is central to the Mardi Gras parade. The 2015
Inter-House Samba Band of the Year Competition was

Year 9 Band

Olavian 2015 77

78 Olavian 2015

Modern Foreign
Languages

Modern Foreign Languages

he Modern Foreign Languages Faculty has had a

very successful year. A particular strength of the
faculty remains the vast array of extra-curricular offering.
However, the arrival of a new Head of Faculty has also
meant changes to the programme of trips and activities.
Particular mention should be made of the Year 9 Lille
French Exchange, which took place for the first time this
year. We hope it will become as well-established as its
German counterpart, the Year 10 Starnberg Exchange,
which has been running successfully for 33 years! The
growth of an MFL film club, alongside a popular
Languages Society, as well as the introduction of foreign
language plays and the schools first participation in the
UK Linguistics Olympiad have been but a few other new
highlights. Furthermore, we were lucky to be supported
by Frau Cooper, who mainly taught German but also
some French.

Karin Zwanziger
S___Head of MFL
European Day of Languages
European Day of Languages is celebrated in all
European countries on 26th September at the initiative
of the Council of Europe. The MFL Faculty honoured
this with special activities taking place throughout the
week. We started on Monday with all forms completing
a quiz of 26 tricky questions on European languages,
won by Kanyanta Green with an astounding result of
25/26. On Tuesday, students of French and Spanish
talked about their respective Year 10 residential trips
to Normandie and Murcia, all in perfect French or
Spanish, before the canteen served delicacies such as
Courgette Pasta and Abndigas. Wednesdays assembly
saw more students recount their adventures in the
Rheinland, in fluent German. Adrian Santhiapillais
video clip of the German Exchange to Starnberg was a
technical masterpiece which made everyone shed a tear
of laughter; and superb German meatloaf, based on Frau
Cooleys recipe of German Frikadellen, and Sauerkraut
made for a highly popular lunch. The week was rounded
off with foreign languages quizzes and our multilingual
Chaplain teaching us some Russian in Fridays assembly.
Nous adorons les langues! Wir lieben Sprachen! Nos
encantan los idiomas!
Years 11 13 MFL Film Club
Launched in November, the MFL Film Club held some
well-attended showings including Goodbye Lenin,
Das Leben der Anderen (German), Les Intouchables,
80 Olavian 2015

&HUWLFDWH:LQQHUVRIWKH$GYDQFHG8.
Linguistic Olympiad

Bienvenue chez les ChTis (French), as well as Volver

and Un Cuento Chino (Spanish). Films are in the
original language, with subtitles in English.
UKLO
All Sixth Form students of MFL, as well as a few
voluntary additions, sat the Advanced UKLO (UK
Linguistics Olympiad) for the first time in the history
of the Faculty in early February. Students had to match
up Japanese place names with their English translations,
translate texts from indigenous Australian languages
into English, make head or tail of the rather complex
Finnish case system and decipher sentences written in
the Georgian alphabet. Over 1400 students participated
in the whole country, the great majority coming from
independent schools. Although our students all found
the paper extremely difficult, Edward Tolmie and
Prerana Bhandari managed to get into the top 5% (Gold
Certificate), Rangana Kumarasena, Philippa Norris,
Sophia Hou into the top 15% (Silver Certificate), and
William Edmonds, Tabtim Dnger and Oliver Allen
into the top 35% (Bronze Certificate). Well done to all
our contestants!
Years 11-13 MFL Society
Well done to Jeevan Ravindran for his enthusiasm in
creating this society, which attracted our top linguists.
Students presented talks on The Philosophy of Language,
Google Translator, Baby Talk, Aboriginal Languages,
amongst others, which were followed by discussions on
these topics.
Years 9 & 10 MFL Plays
Years 9 and 10 attended plays in French, German and

Spanish by the theatre company Onatti in the Great Hall.

These provided great entertainment for the students, as
well as an opportunity to gain inspiration and sharpen
up their language skills. Students of Spanish enjoyed
the performance of Fuera!, which was about Raquels
revenge on her brother Oscar for ruining her cita (date)
with her dream-boy Fernando. Student participation
was well appreciated with some perfect Spanish accents.
The students had been prepared in advance for some
scenes of the play, conducted entirely in Spanish by
native-speaking actors. The common consensus was that
it was highly enjoyable with students impressed by how
much they understood. Our students of German enjoyed
Meine neue Schwester, performed by two German
actresses, about sixteen year old Katarina, whose mother
is acting rather embarrassingly around her new boyfriend
Gunter. Gunters daughter Sonja seems like someone
with whom Katarina could share the joys and worries
of teenage life. However, to her disappointment Sonja
turns out to be an utter nightmare rude, condescending
and far too cool for Katarinas world. Opposites attract
though and the two girls eventually overcome their
differences. The students all agreed that they thoroughly
enjoyed the play and even the boys in their second year
of learning understood about 80% of it. They certainly
did their teachers proud when being called upon stage
to act! French students had fun attending Une Erreur
didentit, a play which was set in a run-down hotel in
France. A blend of mystery and comedy, performed
entirely in French, also called some students on stage to
take part in the plot. Quel Plaisir!

return visit during the Easter holidays was by no means

less exciting. Students spent some time at our partner
school Collge de la Croix Blanche experiencing French
school life first hand, visited a mining museum, learned
about the textile industry in the North of France, and
attended pastry and tee-shirt making workshops. They
also enjoyed a bilingual treasure hunt and spent a day in
Eurodisney.
Years 12 & 13 Le Tartuffe
In March, students visited the French Institute in
South Kensington to see Le Tartuffe by leading French
playwright Molire. In this energetic one-man show,
actor Guillaume Bailliart perfectly captured the nuances
of each character, particularly in his riveting and comical
portrayal of Tartuffe.
Year 8 in Boulogne
An early Euro Shuttle from Folkestone to Calais
preceded the drive to the beautiful town of Boulognesur-Mer. After walking around the ramparts and the
Basilica, students of French bought interesting cheese,
sausages, Nems Chauds, Vietnamese food and Brets in
the market. Wandering through the Nausicaa sea-life
centre, they saw turtles and sharks, and they witnessed
spectacular feats performed by the sea lions. With the
weather being stunning, students were able to enjoy a few
games by the beach. The completion of French booklets
ensured the target language was practised throughout

FRENCH
Sixth-Form Paris Trip
Une fois arrivs notre logement nous sommes repartis
pour faire du tourisme, et tout le monde a t trs
impressionn par les vitraux de la Sainte-Chapelle ainsi
que par le chteau de Versailles que nous avons visits
le lendemain. Cependant, si amusant soit-il, pendant
une sortie scolaire il y aura toujours des msaventures,
notamment Jeevan que Mlle Delage a d aller chercher
Montmartre o il avait t abandonn! Ensuite, on
a mang chez Chartier o nous avons fait lexprience
du chaos caus par une grve des employs. Avant de
voir lArc de triomphe, les jardins de Luxembourg et la
tour Eiffel de nuit. Le dernier jour nous sommes alls au
muse Picasso et on a vu quelques-unes de ses uvres
clbres.
Year 9 Lille French Exchange
For the first time in many years, an exchange with a
school in France welcomed 14 French students with
their two teachers for a week. During the first leg of the
exchange, the boys attended a performance of The Lion
King in Covent Garden, played rugby together and had
an afternoon cooking session to make shortbread! The

Students sketching the Basilica in Boulogne

Year 8 enjoying the market in Bolougne

Olavian 2015 81

GERMAN

Berlin

the day and students found the trip highly enjoyable.

Year 10 Residential to Normandy
En juillet, nous sommes alls en France en Normandie
pour une semaine. Nous avons visit le Mont Saint
Michel (ctait tellement touristique!) et nous avons
fait la traverse de la Baie pieds. Nous avons test les
sables mouvants. Nous sommes aussi alls un march
traditionnel et nous avons visit une chvrer+++ie. De
plus, nous sommes rests La Grande Ferme pour passer
notre temps libre; a nous a plu, nous avons pu jouer au
foot, au volley ou au ping-pong. Nous avons aussi regard
un film passionnant: Les Intouchables. Dans lensemble,
ctait une semaine fantastique!

Sixth-Form Berlin trip

During February half term a group of Sixth Form German
students explored the sights and sounds of Berlin. They
stayed in a comfortable youth hostel enjoying a hearty
breakfast every morning, based only two underground
stops from the Alexanderplatz with its iconic TV tower.
Highlights of the trip were a visit to the Jewish Museum,
walking along the East Side Gallery with the longest
stretch of remnants of the original Berlin Wall, looking
at the documentation on attempted escapes to the West
in the Bernauer Strae and a tour of the Reichstag with
the modern glass dome by Sir Norman Foster. Last but
not least was a tour of the prison of the former STASI
(Staatssicherheit), where the students learned about
the GDRs inhumane methods of interrogation from
a lady who had been imprisoned for 3 years merely for
enquiring about travel to the West! The trip not only
improved the students language skills, but was also
a thought-provoking journey back to the times of the
Cold War. Wir sind alle Berliner!
Year 10 Rhineland
Wir haben die Schule um sechs Uhr verlassen und die
Reise mit dem Bus war ziemlich anstrengend, weil sie
viele Stunden gedauert hat. Wir sind am Abend im
Hotel Jgerhof angekommen und haben noch ein wenig
die umliegende Umgebung erkundet. Am Dienstag
haben wir eine Bootsfahrt auf dem Rhein gemacht
und danach sind wir mit der Seilbahn zum Denkmal
Niederwald gefahren. Es war spannend und die
Landschaft war wunderschn. Am nchsten Tag sind
wir in das mittelalterliche Dorf Cochem gefahren. Dort

Students in Sir Norman Fosters glass dome at the Berlin Reichstag

82 Olavian 2015

Berlin Trip 2015

Olavian 2015 83

Paris Trip 2015

84 Olavian 2015

haben wir eine Burg in der Nhe besichtigt, bei der wir
viel ber ihre Geschichte gelernt haben. Es war total
interessant. Am letzten Tag sind wir nach Phantasialand,
einem genialen Freizeitpark, gefahren. Die Wartezeit
war beinahe unertrglich, aber nach einer Stunde sind
wir schlielich angekommen. Jeder hatte unglaublich
viel Spa im Freizeitpark und wir haben versucht,
so viele Fahrten wie mglich zu machen. Unsere
Lieblingsattraktion war Die Schwarze Mamba. Am
Freitag waren wir alle so mde, dass wir auf der ganzen
Rckreise geschlafen haben. Im Groen und Ganzen
war es extrem unterhaltsam und uerst unvergesslich.
Year 10 Starnberg German Exchange
Year 10 students of German took part in the 33rd
German Exchange to Starnberg. Exchange partners
from Starnberg Gymnasium visited us as early as April
and visited the London Eye, the Globe and the Changing
of the Guard. The Germans command of English
enabled them to enjoy Charlie and The Chocolate
Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. This fantastic
experience was replicated as our students did the return

visit to Starnberg in July, taking in Disneys iconic fairy

tale castle at Neuschwanstein in the Bavarian Alps, the
BMW works, the Olympiapark, as well as the University
of Munich, where Sophie Scholl famously distributed
her Anti-Nazi leaflets and was later executed for high
treason. They also spent time in the Alps, relaxing in the
Englischer Garten and joined their partners for a few
lessons in school.
Das Beste am Austausch war es, nette deutsche Leute
kennenzulernen. Wir haben unglaublich viel Deutsch
gelernt, weil wir nach Frau Zwanzigers Anweisungen
in Deutschland immer Deutsch sprechen mussten.
Obwohl es anfangs schwierig war, war es ganz wunderbar.
Die Austauschfamilien haben uns sehr geholfen und
wir haben viele schne Dinge gemeinsam erlebt. Der
Wasserpark war wahrscheinlich die allerbeste Aktivitt.
Es gab eine Wasserrutsche und ein Sprungbrett. Ein
paar von uns haben jeden Tag Schnitzel gegessen, was
total lecker war. Wir werden mit unseren Partnern auf
jeden Fall in Kontakt bleiben und mchten sie nchstes
Jahr wieder besuchen.

Students enjoying stunning views in the Rhineland and having fun in Phantasialand

Students enjoying themselves in the Olympiapark, and admiring Neuschwanstein in the sun
Olavian 2015 85

SPANISH

Year 8 Spanish Day

Students enjoyed a day of activities to increase their
cultural awareness of the Spanish speaking world. They
spent time watching an Argentinian animated film about
a table football game coming to life called Metegol,
learned basic Flamenco steps with teacher Juani Garcia
and her guitarist, and cooked Tortilla Espaola and
Patatas Bravas, under the close supervision of Seora
Gardiner. The boys had a fantastic time and learned a
great deal, although the skills acquired were not only
related to Spanish (e.g. how to peel an onion, how much
spice to put in a sauce). Qu bien!
Year 10 Residential to Murcia
Under cloudless skies Year 10 Spanish students landed
at San Javier airport in Murcia. They then set off for the
Centro de Alto Rendimiento, a former Olympic centre,
in Los Alczares, which was only a few metres away from
the beach. They visited the Amphitheatre in Cartagena
and a funfair, experienced Spanish lessons, mud bathing,
swimming, sailing, windsurfing, paddle boarding and
dancing salsa to a Cuban band. It is fair to say that they
all had a great time! Viva Espaa!
Spanish Work Experience
This February half term, my friend Jacob Shotton (13Q)
and I went to the vibrant city of Alicante, located on
the Costa Blanca, for a weeks work experience. I spent
five days working in the office of the trades union CGT

(Confederacin General del Trabajo) and Jacob worked

in the harbour administration offices. As a prospective
law student, I was particularly interested in spending
my week working within the legal or political field, so
when I was allocated my placement I was very excited
yet slightly apprehensive - I knew little about Spains
political and economic problems.
Throughout my week at the CGT, I barely spoke a word
of English to any of the workers and I learnt a lot about
the problems facing people in Spain - particularly for
low-earning workers who are facing zero hour contracts
and homelessness. In addition, I helped the receptionist to
work out the differences between the budgets set in place
for this particular trade union compared with the actual
spending on research, legal fees and demonstrations.
Shadowing a lawyer and having the opportunity to sit
in on client meetings was also incredibly interesting and
beneficial for my career plans, although it was particularly
difficult to understand political and legal vocabulary in
another language!
I had a very pleasurable experience in Alicante, and
my time spent there has greatly improved my spoken
Spanish. In addition, I have become more interested
in political affairs and I hope that I have made some
valuable contacts so that in the future I might have the
opportunity to further develop my linguistic skills in
such an intellectually engaging environment.
Chloe Daley 13P

7ULSWR0XUFLDZLQGVXUQJVDOVDGDQFLQJDQG
mud bathing
86 Olavian 2015

Humanities

The Faculty of Humanities

014-15 was a successful, stable year for the Humanities

Faculty. The faculty continued to organise an ever
expanding plethora of extra-curricular ventures and
trips alongside preparing for several major curriculum
changes taking effect in 2015 and 2016.
In last years Olavian it was noted that the faculty would
organise a mock election in March 2015 prior to the
General Election in May. Polling Day was on Thursday
19th March and having followed extensive debates
and hustings organised by a committed team of Sixth
Formers, over half the school population turned out
to vote at polling stations setup across the school site.
Electronic voting helped to exclude protest votes and
also alert the election team to irregularities in favour
of one party which were duly discounted! The Labour
party represented by Edward Parker-Humphreys and
Max Lewthwaite were the overall winners, however,
the faculty hope the process served to introduce pupils

across the school to the British democratic process and

its vagaries!
2014-15 also saw a review of the Humanities Faculty
which it tackled with customary imagination and
diligence. The review only served to highlight why
pupils approach lessons within the faculty with such
enthusiasm and consequently go on to achieve excellent
results in public examinations. The numbers of pupils
studying Humanities subjects is ever growing and it has
been heartening to see increasing numbers of young men
and women leave St. Olaves to continue those academic
pursuits at university. 2015-16 will see the faculty
continue to flourish.

Daniel Espejo
S___Head of Humanities

5HPHPEUDQFHDW3R]LHUV<HDU%DWWOHHOGV7ULS
88 Olavian 2015

The Department of History

It was not a game as such more of a kick-around and a
free-for-all. There could have been 50 on each side for all I
know. I played because I really liked football. I dont know
how long it lasted, probably half-an-hour, and no-one was
keeping score.

egend has it that on Christmas Day 1915 British and

German soldiers engaged in an impromptu football
match in no-mans land having left their trenches during
a truce. The quote above is attributed to Bertie Felstead
who served in the Royal Welsh fusiliers and was the last
survivor of the match. As we mark the 100th anniversary
of the football match to which Edmund Blackadder
refers in the final episode of Blackadder the History
department continues to help pupils remember and
reflect on the Great War. The Year 8 visit to Ypres/
Somme saw pupils pay homage to fallen Olavians at the
grave of Private W. Ruggles at Poziers cemetery. Old
Olavian Peter Leonards book, Till All Our Fight be
Fought: The Olavian Fallen has proven to be invaluable
in helping pupils to access the stories of the lives of boys
and men who studied and worked at St. Olaves prior to
joining the services.
2014-15 contained a huge amount of activity within the
History department, however, it was sad to bid farewell
to Mrs Beard and Mr Gonsalves who both brought both
great passion to the teaching of History at St. Olaves.
Exam results remained a real strength with the Year
11 GCSE cohort coming close to matching the record
results of 2013-14 with 78% of pupils achieving A*s and
97% A*/A grades.
2015-16 will see further changes for the department
with the introduction of Miss Clift and new Year 12
modules on the Birth of the USA and Challenge and
Transformation in Britain from 1851 onwards.

Daniel Espejo
S___Head of History

Utopia Day
In this annual event to promote links across departments,
Year 7s studied the theme of Utopia in Classics, English,
Geography and History. Caleb Martin-Batchelor wrote:
We learnt why the Pilgrim Fathers left England and
how America was created. We studied democracy in
ancient Athens, and how the words utopia and dystopia

come from the Greek eu (good), dys (bad) and topos

(place). In Geography we learnt what makes a Utopia
and analysed dystopia in English, by watching three
trailers of post-apocalyptic films.
Holocaust
Students were well informed about activities marking
the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
through History lessons on the Holocaust. They used
the stimulus of Freddie Knollers story of his survival,
recently shown in a BBC documentary, and considered
the legacy of survivors stories.
History Society
In an intriguing talk on the premiership of Margaret
Thatcher, the Conservative MP, Sir Edward Leigh,
who served alongside her during her time in office,
provided a captivating insight into her decision making
and infamous style of leadership! His answers to the
questions posed by the packed student audience revealed
his personal sadness at the end of Thatchers ministry
in 1990, and the complex internal divisions within the
party.
WW1 Exhibition
Thank you to Chris Davies for setting up the World
War 1 exhibition in the First Court Cloisters and also
to those who sent in memorabilia, photographs, moving
personal letters, diaries, military records, medals, records
of bravery, that tell of how the war affected those at
the front and also those left behind. The school archive
records that nearly 200 Olavians, students and teachers
lost their lives; in token of this King George V donated
the memorial and signed photographs that stand at the
back of The Great Hall. Grantley Le Chavetois was killed
in Palestine and gave his name to our school community
outreach charity. In the school Reception you will see the
clock donated by his mother in his memory.
%DWWOHHOGVWULS
Beginning in the small hours of Monday 18th May,
the entirety of Year 8 proceeded on a short journey from
Orpington to Folkestone, through the Channel Tunnel
to Calais and on into northern France and eventually
Belgium.
It was in southern Belgium where we made our first stops
at a mere few of the cemeteries across Belgium where the
soldiers killed in World War 1 were laid to rest. These
included Bedford house, the vast Tyne Cot cemetery,
where over 10,000 soldiers from Commonwealth are
Olavian 2015 89

buried, and the German Langemark cemetery. At every

site we had the opportunity to learn about aspects of war
burials and the circumstances through which many of
the poor souls buried came to be there.

I personally send my heartiest thanks to everyone who

helped organize the trip, as it provided a huge amount
of fascinating information about both world wars and
ample opportunity for reflection on the sacrifices made
by the men who fought in them.

Following this and a visit to a preserved German trench

system just outside Ypres, we entered the formerly muchfought over town and observed the famous Menin Gate
and then enjoyed a spectacular and civilized dinner of
the highest quality. Once this was finished the day was
drawing to an end and we proceeded to our hostel, which
surpassed many expectations, as each group enjoyed a
generously sized apartment!
The next day, after an amazing breakfast buffet at the
hostel, we went on yet another long coach journey (but
this time thankfully livened up by a documentary about
the Battle of the Somme) to one of the sites at which the
infamous Battle of the Somme was fought. Following
an introduction to conscription and Kitcheners Army,
we trekked across the countryside to a site at which a
battalion of men from Accrington in Lancashire who
had volunteered for the British army were decimated on
the first day of the infamous battle on July 1st 1916. From
there we went on to the Newfoundland Memorial Park,
where we observed how the attack on July 1st not only
killed thousands of British men but also had a hand in
the economic collapse of the entirety of Newfoundland.

On the beaches at Dunkirk

After that we visited the Theipval Memorial to the

Missing, a colossal structure created in honour of those
brave soldiers who died and whose bodies were never
found. Here we sought out the names of the many Old
Olavians who gave their lives in World War 1, and after
paying respect to them we went on to visit the Lochnager
Mine Crater which was created by the explosion of an
enormous mine laid under German lines on the first day
of the Battle of the Somme. To finish the day we held
a short ceremony of remembrance at Poziers cemetery
during which we laid a wreath on the grave of C.G
Ruggles, an Olavian who sacrificed himself in the war
to end all wars.
Wednesday 20th May was dedicated to the early phases
of World War 2, and we headed into France to examine
the forts hastily constructed on the French-Belgian
border to defend against another German attack as we
learnt about the Maginot Line and German rearmament
in the inter-war years. Then we visited French the town
of Cassel as we learnt about Blitzkrieg and the retreat of
the British Expeditionary Force in 1940. Here we were
permitted a brief look around, but we were soon nearing
our final spot: Dunkirk. On the beaches where, 75 years
ago, over 300,000 men were evacuated, we learnt exactly
how this evacuation came about, and after an informative
trip to the museum it was time to return, each of us more
knowledgeable than we were before.
90 Olavian 2015

At Bedford House

Thiepval

Serre
Olavian 2015 91

The Department of Geography

eography is a fascinating study of places, people &

their interactions. It is truly synoptic and is always
relevant and changing from the local to the global
this is reflected at St Olaves. Geography is everywhere
and students can enjoy this we live in an amazing,
awesome, but delicate physical environment that needs
our care.
Politically, geographical issues are taking on increasing
relevance. Topical issues such as climate change, global
warming, population growth, resource depletion and
international debt dominate our news to an extent
never before seen. The Geographical Society has been
discussing these topics in depth this year, going from
strength to strength. Topics were wide ranging, from the
Spratly Islands, to Globalisation & the internet, to the
Senkaku Islands.
Governments have a role to play in shaping the future.
However, it is the individual who will ultimately shape
public opinion. The collective decisions taken today are
going to have profound effects upon future generations.
The world has never been in greater need of welleducated and curious Geographers such as our Olavians
who continue to achieve fantastic results, with many
going on to study Geography at university too.

Victoria Watson
S___Head of Geography
Geographers in Malham
In a four day trip to the Yorkshire Dales students
investigated river variables in Cowside Beck and renewable
energy sources. Experiencing first-hand the effect of flash
floods and working mini hydro-electric power plant
enhanced their understanding. The keenest explorers also
trekked up Goredale Scar waterfall and to Victoria Cave
before breakfast!
Trip to Ashdown Forest
Year 9 Geographers investigated river processes and
downstream changes on the River Warren in the Ashdown
Forest, drawing a field sketch and measuring variables
such as cross-sectional area, velocity and gradient. Despite
recent dry weather, some of them still managed to get very
wet!
Fascinating Maidstone
Year 10 Geographers went on a fieldtrip to Maidstone,
collecting data to ascertain whether it is possible to
92 Olavian 2015

Year 12 Malham Trip

identify the different functional parts of the town. We

planned our own hypotheses prior to the trip regarding
various things like functional land use, building height,
change over time, environmental quality, traffic, and so on.
Our theory was that retail and commerce will be found in
the centre of town because the transport links converge
there so the workers and shoppers are able to reach the
area easily. Towns tend to grow outwards, so we were
expecting to find older buildings nearer the centre and
newer ones further out. We thought that residential areas
should be outside of the central business district because
the land becomes cheaper, meaning individuals can afford
houses and flats. Our findings were fully analysed during
the summer term.
Competitions
The Geography Department entered two teams into the
Bromley WorldWise competition run by the Geographical
Association. Ten boys from Year 10 took part in the quiz
involving rounds on OS maps, Google Earth and famous
landmarks. Well done to St. Olaves Edward Cranston,
Thomas Young, James Byrne, Joshua Limbrey and Kieran
Walton who took second place.

Our congratulations went to Jacob Lawson 10M who was

Highly Commended in the Geographical Association
Physical Geography Competition Physical geography
around where I live. This was a national competition and
many students from St. Olaves enjoyed exploring their
local areas and seeing the physical geography that is all
around us.
Students in the Wonders of the World Club for Years 7
and 8 have been designing earthquake proof buildings.
They also joined Ian Stewart on his journey through the
incredible landscapes and ecosystems of planet earth.
Geography and RS.
In Activities Week Year 7s focussed on differences and
similarities in the design of churches. After starting with
St Peter & St Pauls church in Farningham they walked to
Lullingstone to see St Botolphs in the castle grounds, as
well as Lullingstone Roman Villa with its family chapel.
For Geography, they studied Hulberry and Eynsford to
develop understanding of settlements, siting factors and
modern functions which will be used in their IPM.

Year 9 trip to Ashdown Forest

Iceland Trip
Arriving in Iceland on the 6th of July 2015 there was
an atmosphere of excitement, anticipation, and a little
tiredness, as we awaited all that Iceland had to offer. After
eating dinner at the hostel on the first night, we quickly
made our way to the local geothermally heated pool for a
late night swim in Reykjavik, perhaps our first real taste of
Icelandic culture, which would warm us up for the even
more exciting trip to the Blue Lagoon a few days later.
Empty Classroom Day

Year 7 Trip to Eynsford

It was an early start the next day, departing at 8 AM

from the hostel on the minibus for a day packed full
of sightseeing and adventure. Our first major stop, the
Solheimajokull Glacier, was for many one of the most
exciting parts of the trip, giving many of us our first
experience of walking on a glacier. The perhaps ironically
named Home of the Sun Glacier may not have offered
much sun, but it did offer us a firsthand insight into the
wonders of the glacial environment; seeing deep moulins
and crevasses, and even getting to taste the glacial water.
We also had the unique opportunity to learn about w basic
ice equipment, such as fitting crampons onto our boots,
and holding ice axes. After walking for a couple of hours
on the glacier, it was time to return to the minibus though,
as an exciting day still waited ahead.
The rest of the day consisted of visiting two Icelandic
coastal towns, in Vik and Reynishverfi; the second of
which offered us the opportunity to climb up and sit on
Olavian 2015 93

the basalt columns, and take photos of the impressive

basalt caves. After a video screening at the Eyjafjallajokull
visitor centre, we still had time to visit a couple of Icelands
most exciting waterfalls, at Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss;
the second of which we could even walk behind.

which gave us beautiful panoramic views over the city.

Our morning would conclude with a visit to boiling mud
pools and hot springs in the Reykjanes Peninsula, and the
Lucky Bridge, a bridge between continents spanning the
fissure of the mid-Atlantic ridge.

The second full day, whilst a little shorter, was still packed
full of things to see and do. We got to stop off at the
massive volcanic Crater Lake at Kerid in the morning,
and then visited the Gullfoss, or Golden Waterfall, which
was a double falls located in a deep steep-sided gorge;
undoubtedly one of the most impressive sights on the
trip. Our lunch stop allowed us to explore the Geysir
Park where we saw the incredible might of the Strokkur
geyser, which could reach a height of up to 30m. Yet, after
lunch more adventure awaited, as we had the opportunity
to go lava tube caving, exploring a large cave created by
volcanic activity in the Thingvellir region and allowing
us to walk and climb through the caves with the help of
our trusty guides. The day concluded with a walk around
the National Park in Thingvellir, along the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge.

Last, but certainly not least, it was our chance to visit

the Blue Lagoon, the geothermally heated pool said to
be one of the 25 wonders of the world. Relaxing in the
warm pool, said to have special healing properties for the
skin, was a great way to relax in comfort and style before
our flight back to London. It was a tiring few days, but
packed full of adventure and sightseeing and well worth
the effort. The trip gave us a much greater understanding
of how geographical processes have formed and shaped
Iceland, and also provided us with an insight into Icelandic
traditional and culture; where we tried a couple of Icelandic
delicacies on the last day. It was an amazing trip, and one
Im sure many students will enjoy in the future.

With the skies relatively clear that evening, we were able

to mark our last night in Reykjavik with a wonderful
sunset, but it wasnt to be goodbye quite yet, with another
fully packed day the next morning and early afternoon.
We started the last day with a tour of the city centre in
Reykjavik, visiting the impressive church, the old port and
the lake. We also got to stop off at the Harpa building, and
marvel at its magnificent structure from the inside and
out. To conclude our tour of the city, we visited Perlan,
a large circular building, with a rooftop viewing platform

Watching the sunrise in Iceland

94 Olavian 2015

National Competitions
The Department of Classics

alumni. Tim Adelani has already come back and given

an excellent talk on How to rule an Empire and we
have a whole cohort ready to grill this years Oxbridge
potentials. I am thrilled both by their progress and their
on- going commitment to the school. Of course too, we
went to Greece this year and my report thereof is below
this proem. It was rather too challenging given the crisis
and Grexit referendum taking place while we were there
but we still had a glorious time and found new delights
such as Thorikos and Oropos. In a nutshell, all is well.

he department continues to prosper with good

numbers taking up Latin in the Lower School
and continuing right through to GCSE and beyond.
Imogen Trusselle, Jo Corderey and Daniel Finucane
will start to read Classics at University this October and
we have high hopes on the back of 100% A/ B grade
at AS that we will secure places this coming year. The
enthusiasm for Ancient Greek is still burning and this
year we have one brilliant candidate doing A2 Greek
being taught by the members of the department as an
extra-curricular subject. There were some magnificent
moments this last year not least with the tremendous
production of the Bacchae which was introduced by an
academic from Kings College London. This first outing
in my time at Saint Olaves into a production of Greek
Tragedy has given birth to a production of the Oresteia
this year. This new enthusiasm for Greek Tragedy will
be encouraged enthusiastically as it adds further depth
to their learning and provides a richer dimension to the
interdisciplinary nature of Classics within the school.
There were some familiar visits too and I seemed to take
up almost permanent residence in the British Museum
during Activity Week One with a record stay of three
days with Craigisms on the Elgin Marbles. My nostos
there was to coincide with the Age of Beauty exhibition.
We also took the charabancs down to Porchester and
however much I feel that I would like to do something
new, perhaps a visit to Verulamium, it actually proves
an ideal site each year though my increasingly elderly
knees are less keen on the triple ascent to the top of the
Norman Keep. Up there, I feel like the watchman lying
on the roof of Clytemnestras Palace waiting for news
of Agamemnons return. However I am significantly
supported by my colleagues who have become all
honorary members of the Classics Department.

The department was given a superlative boost at the

beginning of the year with the arrival of Cambridge
University educated Mr Alex Carroll who has in
keeping with his predecessors brought his own brand
of wit and sagacity. We continue to draw large numbers
to this subject from our own students and from other
schools with the new sixth form intake. All these pupils
will benefit greatly from Mr Carrolls learning. There is a
real enthusiasm for Latin and Greek in Years 12 and 13
with many of our pupils going on to read Classics in its
many formats at the very best universities. We continue
to enjoy trips to Greece with the annual attempt to find
some sites which have not been visited by us before
though we have yet to travel north to explore the tombs
of Philip of Macedonia. It would be magnificent if we
could organise an OO Classics trip too or an Activity
Week Two which was more than a week in duration.
The department no longer visits Tunisia or Italy because
we have been teaching the AQA Course on Art and
Architecture for some time now and very rewarding it is.

My new colleague Mr Carroll has been wonderful in

every respect not merely with his profound knowledge
of all matters Classical but all matters technical too. We
hope to engage even more students with Greek with
his excellent work with both beginners Greek in Year
Eight and his work with the short course Greek GCSE
which sadly will not be offered by OCR after next year.
This is a serious error on behalf of OCR because the
short course fits ideally into a timetable wherein there
would not be enough space to allow the teaching of the
full course. OCR are however are offering some form
of certification but we will all have to wait to see what
exactly that means.

It is immensely pleasing to hear news of OO Classicists

who seem to be receiving First Class honours degrees
and prizes and we have even one who has now sung in
the Sistine Chapel for the Pope. We have bought, thanks
to the generosity of the Parents Association, Massolit
which is inter alia an on line series of talks on Classics
subjects by leading authorities and very good it is too. It
has in part been brought about by the brilliant Classicist
and OO Christopher Tudor who was the Erasmus
scholar at Brasenose. We have had also another Erasmus
scholar at the same college in William Dudley and have
high hopes for several students in the current Lower
Sixth who are already showing immense promise.

We are also very fortunate with our alumnae and

My neighbour towards the end of term said to me

David Craig
S___Head of Classics

Olavian 2015 95

that I should go the Age of Beauty exhibition at the

British Museum. The thought of strangulation came to
mind because I actually saw it three times in one week
in addition to the recce I had done earlier in the year
during the Easter Holidays. I took years seven, eight and
nine there, became very excited about the pediments
of the British Museum itself, the works of Myron and
Praxiteles, digressed on the metopes and tried to explain
the significance of the Parthenon Frieze. We also were
evacuated from the museum because of the fire alarm
going off which was a first in my experience.
We went to Portchester as per norm. One of my
colleagues thought she might have been there ten times
with me. I think she is correct; mos maiorum, mos
maiorum , I uttered under my breath. Portchester is a
superlative example of a Roman coastal fort and best
seen from the roof of the Norman Castle but as I grow
older and less elfin the task of climbing up and down the
keep six times in one day grows more challenging. The
difficulty lies in finding something as rewarding and as
easily accessible. We have given thought to Saint Albans,
Pevensey and even Roman Basingstoke but none of these
three seem to have the pull of ancient Portsmouth.
There are plans and at this stage no more than plans
for some more Classical adventures for different age
groups. Perhaps I shall be writing in the magazine about
these soon. Given that Latin and Greek are nationally
recognised as the hardest GCSEs and A levels, OCR has
decided to make them even harder with some English in
Latin, though the fate of the short course Greek GCSE
is flimsy but likely to survive for two further years.
Additionally I have noticed the trend too in setting more
exasperating authors. Currently I am preparing Tacitus
Annals Book 4 full of the skulduggery of Sejanus and
his penchant for poisoning and in the last two years
we have been teaching Propertius and not the more
famous Monobiblos. I enjoy teaching these authors
but sometimes I wonder how much OCR appreciate
their complexities, not least with Tacitus fondness for
omitting the main verb or having to hunt for the verb
like some Classical Wheres Wally and Propertius
delight in myth and geography of which few have heard.
We are fighting our corner against these travails. We have
had exciting speakers come to the Classics Society both
from Oxford, notably Dr DAngour, and Cambridge. The
Sixth Formers produced a brilliant Bacchae which was
introduced to us by Dr. Emmanuela Bakola, a superlative
lecturer from Kings College London. Mr Alex Carroll
has a small group of Greek enthusiasts in the Lower
School and I have been preparing one pupil for Greek
AS. We are de facto pleased with our progress but we
would enjoy hearing too from more OO Classicists and
their experiences of the Classical World.

96 Olavian 2015

Classics Trip to Greece 2015

Herakles wants to pay ball while a new Dikaiopolis seeks
the help of Merkel.
This year they were performing AristophanesArcharnians
or The charcoal burners in the theatre at Epidauros. I
have seen the play and indeed translated it many years
ago but not as long ago as its first performance in 425BC
but I have never watched it or indeed any other play
performed at Epidauros; the tickets are astronomically
expensive and nigh on impossible to obtain even in a
Greece struck by an economic crisis. Equally I wonder
how much my Lower Sixth would enjoy two hours of
Ancient Greek in the evening Argolid sun. But as you
will know I have been to Epidauros many times and seen
impromptu performances by some notable Olavians
such as James Robinson and Peter Leigh. The latter
was probably singing for the Pope in the Sistine Chapel
at the time of this years visit. The irony of it being
the Archarnians was not lost on me. Dikaiopolis the
protagonist frustrated by the lack of effectiveness of the
Boule during the Peloponnesian War determines to strike
a deal of peace with the Spartans which suit his needs
but not those of his people. He returns to his village to
eat copaic eels, drink lots of fine wine and enjoy the good
life. He infuriates the demos who pelt him with pieces

Eleusis

Sounion

of charcoal. One can only imagine how uncomfortable

this must have been for the contemporary viewer today;
Tsipras was out of town during our visit while the demos
were forming a riotous assembly outside the Palace in
Syntagma Square, a mere ten minutes walk from the
ancient Pnyx.
The common room was awash with speculation about
my visit to Greece prior to departure. The Economics
department was telling me of the ramifications of a
potential failure to receive the bail- out and the neologism
of Grexit. How was the risk assessment going to look if
the smoke bombs were to be thrown in the centre of
Athens? Was I able to take enough cash to bring the
children home? Would the sites be open?
The trip was indeed potentially full of challenges but all
were met with aplomb and not a bomb. We thought on
our feet. We arrived late thanks to British Airways who
gave us the normal platitudes of we will try and make up
time on the journey. What were they going to do? Were
we to be transferred mid-flight to a Lockheed fighter 35,
all squeezing into the cockpit? Our late arrival therefore
prompted a sprint around the new Acropolis museum
before a swim in the roof top tubs of the Herodian.
Unlike previous years we went south this year first to
Sounion perched high up on the rock, then to the curious
Thorikos with its oblong theatre and the remains of the
silver mine. We were in the Laurion peninsula, the source
of the silver for the Attic owl and the vast amounts of
money needed to pay for the war effort. Thereafter we
proceeded to Brauron where we were given a harsh
reception; why do you expect free entry? was the context
of the dialogue I had with an angry museum guard. The
site itself was small and rather disappointing but the
museum was sensational. In the afternoon we returned
rapidly to Athens where we just reached the top of the

Acropolis before we were serenaded with dozens of tin

whistles announcing a strike. The Erechtheion was never
viewed so quickly.
The evening planning session meant that I had
discovered that many of the sites were to be closed not
least my favourite Rhamnous. The new route however
proved very rewarding. The tomb of the fallen Athenians
at Marathon was wonderful not least because of the
superb map detailing the movements of the Persians,
the Plataeans and the Athenians. This was the first battle
where the Athenian hoplites ran under the command
of Miltiades but the museum was beyond expectations.
Here there were stelai, Heroides Atticus collection
of statues of Egyptian deities and next door under a
purpose built canopy a late Helladic necropolis. Further
up the road we also visited a magnificent Byzantine
monastery dedicated to Aghios Eleferias who was flayed
from a tree. I leapt out of my skin inside the chapel when
I saw the revered saint dressed in his robes in a glasstopped coffin his skeletal finger apparently accusing me.
The wretched tree from which he was hung upside down
also had centre stage with various icons decorating its
branches.
Prior to moving onto the wonderful Delphi we went
to the star attraction of the trip the Amphiareion of
Oropos. The site is off the beaten track but well worth
visiting not least for its remoteness. In the Fifth Century
it was the seat of the oracle and seer Amphiareos, the
son of Melanpos. To be seen there is a wonderful stoa
where oracles were given, medicines prescribed and a
small theatre. There are also the remains of a temple to
Amphiareos and a clepsydra. The coach driver said he
had never been there before and the guard said he had
never seen a British school party!I will notch that up as
another first for Olavians.

Left: Erectheion
Above: Silver mine at Thorikos (above)
Olavian 2015 97

There was no change at Delphi; the Roman section

below the temple and the treasuries was still closed but
the early start to the day gave us a mostly crowd free
visit. The little town itself still buzzed with the noise of
bars, knick-knack shops full of replicas were open until
late and there were the usual roaming hounds hoping for
treats. The winds blew excitedly across the pool in the
Amalia and for once we managed to avoid the relentless
curse of cheesy pie. Olympia on the following day was
as magnificent as ever and there was a great detail of
archaeology taking place. Some Danish archaeologists
explained to the group about new work being done on
the Leonideon which brought much to light not only
about the site itself but the techniques involved in
recording data.
Previous co-travellers will remember the wonderful
Amalia in Nafplion where we stayed once again. I confess
they were so pleased to see us that my wife and I were
given a huge bowel of fruit and a bottle of wine in our
room. From there we used it as a base to visit Epidauros
where here too a very generous spirited archaeologist
outside the Thymele gave us a brilliant impromptu talk
on stratification and seriously outshone my ham efforts
at archaeology in the bath house. Of course we went to
Mycenae again and Tiryns too. We managed to find the
famous ice cream shop in Nafplion and I managed not to
lose my temper there. There took place another unusual
event here where one of my group bought himself a
fishing rod and tried to catch his lunch!
The last night saw the usual cabaret evening which
by any standards was the most unusual. It really was
quite remarkable combining what I can only say was a
fantastical mixture of Peter Cook, Monty Python, surreal
adaptations of Ovids Metamorphoses ,an Elvis Presley
impersonator telling ribald jokes and Kity Pring being
silent, mirabile dictum. It took me some time to realise
that this was really rather wonderful.
The drive back to Athens saw us visit Corinth, where
Zack Stiling sang in the theatre and make a flying tour
of the Archaeological Museum. Other aspects of this
excellent trip have not been forgotten such as the train
drive around Athens at night; discovering that there
was a beautiful dog called Herakles at Nemea who just
wanted to play ball and that philosophical debates were
going strong on the coach. We also discovered as ever
that Greece for its woes is still a beautiful, welcoming
country to visit.
Classics Talk
Dr DAngour from Jesus College, Oxford visited the
Classics Society to give a talk on music in the poetry of
Homer and Virgil. Dr DAngour, who was the composer
of the Ode for the London Olympics, explained the
rhythm of the dactylic hexameter to the large audience
98 Olavian 2015

and finished off with an exquisite recording of the sort

of lute playing which might have accompanied ancient
Greek poetry performances.
Classics Society
Dr Helen Van Noorden from Girton College,
Cambridge, gave a captivating talk on the Cosmic
Iliad, explaining some nagging problems which hang
in the balance between divine will and fate. A brilliant
academic, she described how the audience of Homer
would have known the epic Cypria and why Achilles had
to die by reference to the story of Prometheus Bound.
The Bacchae
Students gave a very convincing performance of
Euripides Bacchae; congratulations to all the cast and
particularly to student directors Joseph Cordery and
Daniel Finucane. The audiences appreciation of the play
was enhanced by a lively and enlightening lecture given
by Dr Emmanuela Bakola prior to the performance. All
the actors were very plausible and Robert Pattinsons
Dionysus was electrifying and dynamic.
Horace Odes 1.25
Those Bright Young Things, with a few choice rocks
Dont rattle your windows quite so much
Or snatch away your sleep; and the locks
Of your door hold fast to the touch
Which once swung the hinges so freely!
Less and less now comes the cry,
Lydia, in all the long nights are you really
Asleep, whilst for you I think I must die.
In turn youll be alone and old
At a dead end, lamenting men,
Faithless, fickle. While north winds hold
The secret thrill as parties happen
And you, burning with love and lust,
Raging like a mare on heat,
Clutch at your ulcerous liver, just
Refining your complaints to meet
The carefree youth with party gear
Of green ivy, enjoying dress
Of dark myrtle, not dry leaves near
The cold extremes of wintriness.
Translated by Old Olavian Dr. Crispin Pailing

The Department of
National Competitions
Religious Studies
Above all, be careful what you think, because your thoughts
control your life. Prov 4:23
Can you think? What do you think and why do you
think it? Can you think clearly and assess the claims of
those who think differently to you? The ability to think
is shared by all of us and sets us apart from the majority
of the animal kingdom, but the ability to think clearly
and effectively is all too rare. If it is indeed true that our
thoughts control our lives, then the trick is to control our
thoughts.
Religious Studies is uniquely focussed on the
development of this most fundamental of skills. From
the first half-term in Year 7, in which students consider
a variety of approaches to ultimate questions, to the
trickier end of Year 13, in which students consider
Boethius views on the nature of eternity, students are
challenged to understand the thought of others and to
learn to think for themselves.

who performed spectacularly well this summer. Ten

Year 10 students chose to sit the Full Course GCSE
qualification, giving the Exams Office a headache in
administration but ultimately all achieving A and A*
Grades. At AS, more than a quarter of all the module
results were graded at 100% UMS! Special praise should
go to Izzy Cooper, Izzy Lawson and Susie Bailey, who
all achieved 100% on both papers. In a very difficult
subject, this is an incredible achievement. Wisdom may
not be measurable in good exam results, but it can be
demonstrated in the behaviours that lead to them. At
A2, Nilojana Nirmalan, who picked up the Religious
Studies Prize at Prize-Giving, worked with perseverance
and determination all year. She richly deserved her A*
and in the course of achieving it in her Philosophy of
Religion paper wrote quite the most brilliant essay I have
seen under exam conditions. Well done Nilo.

Andrew Lake
S___Head of Religious Studies

The ear tests words as the tongue tastes food. Job 34:4
Philosophy for Children is an approach to discussion
that places control of the conversation in the hands of
those taking part. A stimulus is provided by the teacher
(a video, a story, an article), which forms the basis for the
class to generate questions for discussion. The emphasis
in the discussion is on listening to and building on or
challenging the ideas of others. The department hosted a
number of Philosophy for Children discussions in Year 9
and 10 lessons, on topics ranging from immigration and
foreign aid to women bishops and giving to charity. In
emotive topics, it is vital for students to learn to persuade
others through argument rather than forcefulness,
and Years 9 and 10 are to be commended for meeting
this challenge. A visiting teacher from La Martiniere
school in Kolkatta remarked there was some anger in
the discussion, but they knew how to express themselves
appropriately. Our students never cease to amaze with
their maturity. It was particularly pleasing in discussions
on giving to charity to see students with hardened views
becoming persuaded by the more compassionate views
of some of their peers.
Wisdom is better than rubies and all the things that may be
desired are not to be compared to it Prov 8:11
Another busy year, then, for the Religious Studies
Department. Wisdom is not to be measured in exam
results, but particular mention should go to students
Olavian 2015 99

Religious Studies Trips

Where would you find a soggy shoe, a seditious toy, and
a bed that is always used but never slept in? In a year
with the Religious Studies Department, of course!
Soggy shoes were this year to be found in abundance on
the Year 7 Geography and RS field trip, since the good
weather to which we have become accustomed was not
consistently apparent this year. Hence, our summer stroll
through the fields, stopping to take in the occasional
church or field sketch, at times took on more the air of a
forced march. Happily though, reports of Trench Foot
are unfounded. Nevertheless, the churches on our route
fulfilled their roles as refuges in times of trouble in both
a literal and symbolic manner.
The Church of St Peter and St Paul in Farningham
offers a fascinating symbolic journey from the profane to
the holy. The entrance to the church grounds is marked
by a traditional lychgate, a favourite in every wedding
album. How many of those happy couples realise that
lych is the Old English word for corpse, and that
the photogenic lychgate was in fact the place where
the recently-deceased, wrapped only in a shroud, were
brought to be met by the priest?
Hence the entrance to the church is open to the ultimate
profanity, but the path from gate to altar is also a path
to the holy. At the entrance, a font, which marks the
cleansing of a believer and a turning from sin. Next,
the nave, where believers receive the Word of God from
a golden lectern. Speaking now from behind the altar
table, the priest addresses the congregation from an apse,
a semi-dome cut into the back wall of the church that
both projects his voice and focusses attention on the
body and blood of Christ. Draw near with faith, he
says, and encounter the divine, he implies. The altar
itself is slightly removed, its visitors must step up into
the chancel but come no further than the communion
rail. There at the communion rail, as a believer receives
the bread and the wine, the everyday meets the holy.
This was the last Year 7 trip to be accompanied by our
outgoing chaplain, the Reverend Andrew McClellan. As
always, his expertise in guiding our groups was greatly
appreciated. Doubtless he would disagree vigorously
with the theology outlined above: his unswerving view
in his service to the school was always that God is
not to be kept locked behind gates, steps and screens.
Instead, like Jesus eating in the houses of sinners and tax
collectors, he seeks to meet with people in the everyday
and by doing so to make the everyday holy.
So much for soggy shoes, but seditious toys? These
were encountered by Year 9 at the Jewish Museum in
Camden. Perhaps tragic toys would have been a better

100 Olavian 2015

tagline though, since this was a toy owned by Barney

Greenman, a Jewish boy born to British parents living
in occupied Rotterdam at the outbreak of the Second
World War. His father, Leon Greenman, made it for
him: a pull-along truck painted red with the letters
LMS emblazoned on the sides. Barney never outgrew
it; he was deported along with the rest of the family to
Westerbrook and subsequently to Auschwitz, where he
and his mother were killed on arrival. Leon Greenman
survived the war and devoted the rest of his life to telling
the story of the holocaust and to fighting racism. He
donated what remained of Barneys belongings to the
museum, who use them so effectively to bring to life
the story of millions through the eyes of one survivor.
As for sedition, the letters LMS on the truck stood for
the London Midland and Scottish Railway, a tiny act of
support for the home nation in a terrifying time.
Finally, a bed that is always used but never slept in. In
fact, many beds that are always used but never slept in, and
all of them to be found in Europes largest Gurdwara, the
Siri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara in Gravesend. As
Year 9 will attest, having been this year the first Olavians
to visit a Gurdwara, this really does have to be seen to
be believed. The building itself is enormous, its 35,000
tons of concrete enclosing a number of worship halls
with a capacity for several thousand people. It is also
impressively ornate, being clad in marble and granite and
decorated throughout with gold leaf and polished wood.
A Gurdwara is so named because it is the House of
(or Gateway to) the Guru. In Sikhism the last of the
founding Gurus is the Guru Granth Sahib, which is not
a human guru, although it may be said to be a living guru.
It is scripture, always exactly 1430 pages long and always
with exactly the same content on exactly the same pages.
Any building that contains the Guru Granth Sahib may
be said to be a Gurdwara.
We were fortunate on our visit to have the services
of an exceptionally engaging and informative guide,
who communicated the tenets of Sikhism with clarity.
Students were invited to consider whether Sikhism should
properly be thought of as a religion or a philosophy, and
whether its practices are more correctly thought of as
worship or meditation. We were taken to see the Langar,
a community kitchen where all guests, we were pleased
to discover, are invited to receive refreshment. Should
you ever find yourself hungry on a journey to India or
Gravesend, meals are free to all visitors to a Gurdwara.
There was only one room in this enormous complex not
open to our students. Inside it could be seen, behind
tinted glass windows, a row of four-poster beds. Always
used, but never slept in, each bed was the resting place
for a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib.

National Competitions
The Department of Economics

t has been another busy and successful year in the

Economics department. The number of students
studying the subject continues to increase year on year.
The results in 2014-2015 were particularly pleasing with
100% of students in year 13 achieving A* to B. This
academic year the department is focussing on delivering
a new A level in Economics which contains a greater
use of mathematics. In addition to the syllabus the
Economics departments continues to enrich our students
from a range of extra curricula opportunities and visits.
Some of the highlights from last year are shown below.

John Greenwood
S___Head of Economics
Political Economy Society
As one of the schools most popular societies, Political
Economy Society has consistently attracted large crowds
this academic year, with a wide range of internal and
external speakers presenting on a fascinating array of
topics. With the Scottish referendum, the Greek debt
crisis, and most prominently, the general election,
all dominating the headlines recently, it has been an
extremely interesting year for anybody interested in
politics or economics.
Once again, the student members have actively
contributed to the society, regularly giving talks and
fielding questions afterwards. This year, we have seen
topics such as the Chinese economy, deflation, and
foreign aid discussed, as well as more unconventional
ideas such as an economic system without money! In

addition to a large number of student presentations,

we have also welcomed guest speakers from a variety
of related professions. Heidi Alexander, Member of
Parliament for Lewisham East, spoke to the society back
in February, while George Buckley, Chief UK Economist
for Deutsche Bank, and David Smith, Economics Editor
for the Sunday Times, also came to give talks. Political
Economy Society was also pleased to welcome back
John Burston, formerly the Head of Economics at St.
Olaves, whose talk on the future of the NHS was very
well received.
We look forward to an exciting programme of talks from
the student body in the coming academic year, as well
as welcoming even more external speakers. Our thanks
goes to James Gibb for his excellent leadership of the
society, and we wish the new management team the best
of luck.
Saint Olaves Target 2.0 Competition
On 11th November the Economics Department at
Saint Olaves hosted its own target 2.0 Monetary Policy
competition. This involves students analysing economic
trends and formulating policies to meet the inflation
target for the economy of 2%.
The team from Saint Olaves competed against teams
from Bromley High School for Girls, Chislehurst and
Sidcup Grammar School, and St Pauls Boys school.
The team from Saint Olaves recommended keeping
interest rates on hold at 0.5 as per its forward guidance
policy as well keeping QE on hold at 375 bn. They
also recommended making greater use of the British
Business Bank to provide finance to small and medium
sized businesses who are finding it difficult to get finance
to undertake new investment.
We are especially grateful to Chris Giles Economics Editor
of the Financial Times and Roy Cromb of Wawhani
Asset Management for judging the competition. We are
also grateful to the Parents Association for supporting
the event by providing prizes, and catering on the day.
The day culminated with the team from Saint Olaves
winning the overall event. Each member of the team was
awarded with a kindle as a prize for their hard work.

Pictured Right to Left, Daniel Galvin, Edward Parker

Humpherys, Amy Borrett, Heidi Alexander MP, James
Gibb and Sebastian Santhiapillai.

Washington New York July 2015

During activities week two, students from both the
History and Economics department visited the cities of
Olavian 2015 101

Washington and New York in what would turn out to be

a very memorable trip. Having arrived coincidentally on
the 4th of July, the group had the opportunity to enjoy
a patriotic firework display at Washington Monument.
The economists enjoyed a thought-provoking lecture at
the World Bank and were treated to an unforgettable
lunch at their international caf. This was followed by a
moving tour around the war memorials, including the
black wall of the Vietnam Memorial the more recently
resurrected Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. Students
were then given the chance to explore the exciting range
of museums as part of the Smithsonian Institution, with

this part of the trip coming to an end with a guided

tour of the US Capitol. From Washington, we travelled
west towards New York, stopping off on our way in
Philadelphia to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence
Hall. In New York, students enjoyed a cruise around
Manhattan island, spectacular views from the Empire
State building and a poignant tour of Wall Street and
the reflecting pools at the sight of 9/11. The whole trip
ended with a visit to the United Nations Headquarters
in which students saw at first hand the incredible efforts
that have been made to promote global peace amongst
countries.

Political Economy Society with George Buckley (head

of Deutsche bank))

Washington & New York - Lower VI Economics and History Trip

102 Olavian 2015

Sports

The Sports Faculty

port continues to flourish at St. Olaves in a range

of activities. As well as maintaining our traditional
strengths in rugby, cricket, Fives and netball (the first
two give opportunities for the players to travel the world
to destinations such as Antigua and South Africa), we
have significantly developed other sports such as hockey,
football, badminton, table tennis and squash. The Sports
Prefects devote significant time to supporting these
activities by running clubs and training sessions as well
as sourcing new fixtures. Sport plays an important part
in the lives of many Olavians and it is always a pleasure
to see so many current students engaged in the extracurricular clubs available as well as to meet former
Olavians who still play a sport having been inspired
whilst at St. Olaves.

1st XV, 2014-15

Andy Kenward
S___Director of Sport
1st XV Rugby
The highlight of the 1st XV was reaching the last 32 in the
Natwest Vase with notable victories against Gravesend
Grammar School, Hayes and Anglo-European school,
before being knocked out by SEEVIC College. The
team had a very promising pre-season tour and this
was built on by beating Colfes and Ravenswood whilst
unfortunately losing to the Old Boys. A strong finish to
the season saw impressive victories against Skinners and
local rivals Langley. Well done to the squad, captained
by Joshua Searby.
2nd XV Rugby
Despite a tough start to the season the narrow losses
of the first half term were soon converted into notable
victories over Langley 25-17 and Gravesend Grammar
36-10. The realisation that team unity was needed to
succeed was a turning point for the season, after which
the lads spirit could not be faulted. Thank you to Mr
Haines and Mr White for steering the improvement in
the standards of rugby.

2nd XV, 2014-15

Under-16 A 2014-15

Under 16 Rugby
This year, through an outstanding work ethic both in
training and matches, the team has deserved its reward
of winning 11 and drawing 1 out of 14 matches. The
group has matured greatly in terms of its skills and the
ability to play good rugby under pressure.
U15 Sevens
The squad started their Sevens season with an impressive
104 Olavian 2015

Under-15 A 2014-15

Rugby Results

Under-13 A 2014-15
tournament win in the prestigious Kent Cup. After easy
victories over Maidstone Grammar, Ravenswood and
Sevenoaks, they beat a very quick Gravesend side in the
semi-final. Despite conceding points early on, StOGS
eventually trounced a powerful Judd side to win by three
tries and lift the trophy for the first time since 1994.
They now qualify for the National Finals in September.
U13 Rugby Tour
After last years cancellations it was with relief that the
squads boarded the coach for Bristol. Although both
teams lost against Dings Crusaders and Chippenham
RFC, lessons were learned. The Olavian squad formed
the Guard of Honour for Bath v Toulouse in the
European Cup, before an evening of ten-pin bowling.
N Bristol RFC were the opponents for the final matches
which the U13s and U14s both won dramatically, 74-0
and 47-0.
Barcelona Rugby Tour
In a highly enjoyable tour, a glimpse of the cultural
delights of the city preceded a truly epic thunderstorm!
Performing in high temperatures in the first match, on
the 4g pitch carved into a valley, the team won 74-0
against Barcelona University. Light relief came in the
form of high-wire activities, a drenching in the waterpark and a visit to the fearsome Port Aventura theme
parks. In a tougher challenge against Taragona Club, the
boys showed great determination to secure a 42-0 win.

Team

Played Won

Drawn

Lost

1st

22

14

2nd

13

U16A

16

13

U16B

U15A

20

11

U15B

14

11

U14A

20

14

U14B

12

U13A

19

12

U13B

16

U12A

20

18

U12B

21

16

Netball Update
It has been pleasing to see both the A and B teams go
from strength to strength, benefiting from the coaching
of Sue and the more experienced Netball players. A
successful win against The Priory was just one example
of fast play and well thought out tactics. Many thanks to
Chloe, Lucie, Velvet and Michelle for their inspirational
leadership.
Y11 Charity Netball
This newly formed team travelled to Newstead Wood to
challenge the girls to a friendly match. Reality struck as
the boys were penalised for footwork before the game
had even started. Despite giving Newstead a run for
their money the girls eventually won 12-10. Well done
to both teams for raising 189.90 for United Through
Sport which helps to educate people in South America,
Asia and Africa.
Kent Netball Tournament
After a flying start, beating Dane Court 16-3, the team
continued with victories over Bromley High and Judd.

Barcelona Rugby Tour

Olavian 2015 105

Hockey Team 2014-15

Netball Team 2014-15

Football Team 2014-15

Despite a narrow defeat by Colfes they won their final

match against Weald to finish 2nd overall in the group
and qualify for the next round.
Sport at Stamford - Netball Tournament.
Every third year we join the Stamford Endowed Schools
for a day of friendly sporting fixtures. Under clear blue
skies some excellent matches were played in good spirit,
with the newly formed girls Netball team only narrowly
losing by 3125 and the U16 Rugby squad losing by
three tries to one.
Eton Fives
This has been another fine year for Fives. A strong Year
10 squad won almost all their matches. Kieran Walton
and Charles Stocks helped win The Richard Barber Cup,
whilst James Tate and Charles Stocks won a very large
regional Individual event at Harrow. In Year 11 Vish
Shetty took a superb win at the Eton U16s Individual
event and Morgan Pugh also played in the Old Olavians
1st Division. Tomas Gallagher won the Turnbull Trophy,
The Kinnaird Pepper-Pot, and became the first schoolboy
to be in a Barber Cup winning team. Most outstanding
were Kosi Nwuba and Tomas Gallagher who lived up to
their 1st Seed ranking by winning the National Schools
Championships U16 title without dropping a set. Joint
Senior Captains, Josh Ravi and Edward King, won the
Kinnaird Pepper Pot and reached the Turnbull Final;
they led by example, helping to train a large Senior Girls
squad who beat Westminster.

106 Olavian 2015

The amazing Fives team remains undefeated in all age

groups with impressive wins against Eton, Harrow
and Westminster. Vish Shetty and Joshua Hutko were
victorious in the Midlands Adult Tournament Festival
section. The Richard Barber Cup saw Kieran Walton,
Tomas Gallagher and Charles Stocks successful against
Highgate, Shrewsbury and Ipswich to bring the title
back for a fourth consecutive year. Further triumph came
in the Graham Turnbull trophy as Tomas Gallagher
and OO James Toop overcame Josh Ravi and OO Seb
Cooley.
The superb Year 7 squad won their debut fixture against
RGS High Wycombe and 16 competed in an U12
tournament at Eton College. Girls Fives is strong this
year, with 16 excellent new recruits. Most matches
have been won in both Regional and National Rugby
Fives and Eton Fives Championships. Outstanding
performances in both Adult League and Tournament
play have come from Vish Shetty, Josh Hutko, Sachin
Balaji, Louis McLean, Cameron Swanson, Kieran
Walton, Charlie Stocks, Morgan Pugh, Josh Ravi, Max
Brookes, Ed King, Kosi Nwuba and Tom Gallagher,
Will Carew, Sohayl Ujoodia.
Football
The 1st X1 football team has enjoyed notable wins
over Christ the King, Ravenswood and The Priory. In
addition, a draw against Charles Darwin and a narrow
loss against the league leaders Kemnal Technology
College have built a positive momentum going into the
final matches of the season.
Hockey
This season has seen strong development with newcomers
joining experienced players to create a vibrant group.
Coach Frederick Luff organised effective training, ably
assisted by Taranpreet Bhoday. Some promising Year 12
players, including Priya Wasu and Katherine Braybrook,
are coming through which augers well for next season.
Thanks to Langley Park Girls school for enabling us to
use their astroturf.
The team has made enormous progress this season with
total commitment from Captain Frederick Luff and
some excellent play from Katherine Braybrook. Thomas

Cox, the goalie, made some outstanding saves, earning

him the title Players Player of the Year.
Year 9 Cricket
Congratulations to the Year 9 Cricket squad who won
the Bromley Cricket Cup. They began the defence of
their title against Langley Park, winning by 39 runs. In
the final, strong batting saw our total reach 128; this,
combined with some excellent bowling, was enough
to defeat Ravens Wood and secure the trophy with a
margin of 82 runs.
88&ULFNHW
The U14s again were through to the Kent Cup final
at Tenterden, their 2nd in 3 years. Despite a strong 42
from Swastik Gupta. Olaves struggled and, in the end,
Tonbridge ran out the winners on a hot but enjoyable
afternoons cricket. In a much improved season our
Year 8 cricketers claimed 3 victories, most notably by 9
wickets against Ravens Wood and also in making the
3rd round of the Kent Cup
U15 Cricket
Congratulations to the squad who won the Bromley Cup,
beating Skinners, Sevenoaks and Langley Park en route
to the trophy. Disciplined bowling, fine wicket keeping
from Kieran Walton and captain Sohayl Ujoodias 42
sealed victory in the final.

Under-13 XI, 2015

Under-14 XI, 2015

U16 Cricket
Having won the Bromley Cup Festival last year, the
Year 10 team was focused on retaining the title. Facing
Langley Park first they set a total of 126 with Amrit
Dawood scoring 44. This was always going to be tough
to chase and our bowlers restricted Langley to 101. A
victory against Hayes, with Henry Edwards scoring 41
off 22 balls, ensured that we topped the group and came
home with the silverware.
Badminton
Our Key Stage 3 and 4 Badminton teams travelled to
Sutton to play in the regional round at Westcroft Leisure
Centre, both returning with Bronze medals.

Under-15 XI, 2015

Fencing
Our warmest congratulations go to Adam Whitelaw
who, for the fourth year in succession, has qualified
to represent his country and will be fencing for Great
Britain in the U17 pe team in both Bonn and
Copenhagen this term.
Poomsae Championships
Jake Egelnick has been selected to represent England
U14s at the 2014 Commonwealth Championships in
Edinburgh. Poomsae is a style of Taekwondo consisting
of a sequence of movements in response to attacks from
multiple imaginary assailants.

U13 Tennis team

Olavian 2015 107

Swimming
In one of our most successful years ever, Theodore
Haslam represented England East in the School Games
in Manchester, coming 1st in the 50m freestyle. In an
exceptional swim, Henry Rennolls set a new British
Record for the U15 Boys 50m Freestyle in the ESSA
National Finals with a staggering 24.15s, beating the
previous record by 0.2s. Congratulations to Henry who
has been invited to Phase 2 of the England Programmes.
With our seniors currently building such a reputation, it
was good to see our youngsters win every single race in a
resounding victory against Colfes and Farringtons.
Congratulations to Theo Haslam who represented
England East in the School Games in Manchester
where he came first in the 50m freestyle. In the 16 age
group Theo is now ranked third nationally in 50m and
100m freestyle.
Congratulations to Henry Rennolls who was invited
to the British Championships/Selection Trials at the
London Aquatic Centre, and went on to win Gold
(for the second time) in the Intermediate Boys 100m
Freestyle representing St. Olaves and ESSA London
Division. Well done to Michael Jacobs and Theodore
Haslam who, despite being younger, were also in the
Senior London team.
In an exceptional swim, Harry Rennolls, set a new English
record at Crystal Palace for the U15 Boys 50m Freestyle,
in a time of 24.40 sec. He also beat Theos previous Kent
County Record for U16 Boys 50m Butterfly, with a time
of 26.76 sec. Congratulations to Harry who, following
recent ASA England Training, has been invited to Phase
2 of the England Programmes 2014.
County Swimmers
Congratulations to Theodore Haslam, Henry Rennolls,
Michael Jacobs and Felix Haslam who represented
Kent at the annual National Inter County competition
in Sheffield. All achieved personal bests, with Michael
Jacobs gaining 3rd place in the 100m backstroke and
Felix and Theodore Haslam both winning relay medals.
I was also delighted that Molly Haynes was awarded the
Keighley Mayes Trophy for Perseverance and Endeavour,
to be presented at the AGM on 13 December in Dover.
U13 and U16 Bromley Table Tennis
championships.
The Year 8s fought valiantly to come 3rd in their pool but
the U16s (actually four Year 9s) came 2nd in their pool
to play the winners of the other pool in the semi-final. A
thrilling 3-1 victory put them into the final where they
only narrowly missed winning the competition.
Cross Country
Thanks to the work of parents and some tree-surgery, the
108 Olavian 2015

schools cross-country course has been resurrected and is

now in regular use by many pupils in the school.
Archery
Connor Stimson was selected, for the second time, to
represent the London Borough of Bromley at the 2015
London Youth Games.
Tennis
Highlights of the season include Year 8 reaching the final
of the Bromley district level 2 competition after beating
BETHS and Stationer Crown Woods Academy, and
some wonderful performances from Year 10 Alexander
Jochim. Well done to the U13 squad who won their pool
in the league and then dominated Alleyns School in the
final of the B league to win convincingly in both singles
and doubles.
Athletics
An enjoyable season saw 7 of our athletes nominated for
Kent Schools. The 4 x 100m Year 8 relay team broke the
school record at the Bromley Minors; Finn Macpherson
and Caelan Raju led the team well at the ESAA Schools
Cup scoring 50 and 43 points respectively with the team
coming 3rd overall.
Sports Prefects
Well done to the Year 13 prefects who give up their time
to ensure that many differing sporting opportunities are
available for students. Without them far fewer clubs and
inter-House matches would be organised.
Sport in Activity Week 2
Fine weather enabled a full range of activities with Year
8 participating in a range of cricket, table tennis, tennis,
badminton and softball House matches. Year 9 were
taken out of their comfort zones by engaging in Street
Dance, Golf Extreme and Doce Pares, before a more
familiar House football competition.
Sports Day 2015
In perfect weather, Sports Day was a great spectacle for
all, including the many parents who attended. Ultimately
it was Cure who prevailed over Bingham by a slender
margin to take the House Trophy. The Junior Victor
Ludorum was Louis McLean who managed to score 55
individual points.
Sports Celebration Dinner
This event, hosted by the PE Department in The
Great Hall was represented by all year groups and a
range of sports. Prizes were presented by Old Olavian,
Tom Thackray, after his speech on making the most of
opportunities at St. Olaves and the value of continuing
sport once you leave school.

Sports Day 2015

Olavian 2015 109

Art, Design &

Technology

National Competitions
Art, Design & Technology
The Department of Design & Technology
The design department prospers greatly with a huge
enthusiasm and acumen for the subject being shown
across all the year groups. Mr Twose has returned to
teach in the department after his passion was inculcated
so brilliantly while a pupil at the school The department
continues to secure places for its students at the very
best universities and excels at the very highest levels in
national competitions. The cyclopean thundering and
beating as though in the bowels of Etna bear witness
to the delight both girls and boys have for the exciting,
dynamic and challenging subject that is design.

Rosie Hawley
S___Head of Design & Technology

Arkwright Scholarships 2015

The school has had another very successful year for
Arkwright with 13 students applying for the prestigious
scholarship and 6 being invited for interview. In the Sixth
Form 5 of our current Arkwright scholars made good
use of their funding to enter and compete in the Land
Rover 4x4 Challenge and we hope this years successful
applicants will take on this exciting opportunity next
year.
Congratulations to Franklyn Asafo-Adjei, Harriet
Caisley, Henry Gill, Sophie Parsons, Bradley Sawyer,
Kai Smith and Adam Stagg who have been awarded
Arkwright Scholarships. These prestigious awards
identify high-calibre students, to inspire and nurture

The Land Rover 4x4 Team

them through A levels and university and, hopefully, to

see them emerge as future leaders in Engineering and
Technical Design.
Design Ventura
Teams from Y9 and 10 developed a product based on the
theme of Connect before visiting the Design Museum
to attend a workshop. Their designs were assessed
for originality, sustainability and economic viability.
Congratulations to Shaun Sanu, Halley Zhu, Oliver
Farrell, Hai Duong, Michael Li and Cameron Martine
whose eeZeePlug was selected to compete against other
schools in the UK.
/DQG5RYHU[&RPSHWLWLRQ
Team Kanga, comprising of Bradley Sawyer, Harriet
Caisley, Sophie Parsons and Kai Smith travelled to
Birmingham to compete in the Land Rover 4x4 In
Schools Regional Competition. Throughout the day
they took part in a number of assessments including a pit
display, verbal presentation, engineering scrutiny, trailer
test and the eagerly awaited obstacle track. The team
performed exceptionally well, impressing both their
mentor from Land Rover/Jaguar and the judges with
their detailed research and portfolio, strong engineering
skills and skilful driving across all of the challenging
obstacles. The team scored highly in all areas and were
pleased to be awarded a prize for both the best track
performance and the overall winner in their category.
The team qualified for the National Final in March
where they competed against 24 other teams for a place
at the World Championships.
Team Kanga travelled to the Heritage Motor Centre to
compete in the National Final of the Land Rover 4x4 in
Schools Challenge. Congratulations to Harriet Caisley,

VEX Robots
Olavian 2015 111

Sophie Parsons, Bradley Sawyer and Kai Smith who

were awarded 1st place in their category.
VEX Robotics
Well done to St. Olavess two senior teams, The Machines
and the Smooth Operators, who have both won regional
qualifying matches to secure places in the Nationals.
Junior VEX Robotics Club has also started with pupils
building Clawbots for an inter-house competition.
Robotics Festival
The Robotics Festival, run as part of the LSEF
PLASMA-T project, saw 20 Year 5 students from five
different local primary schools participating in the
Robotics Build, Design, Compete event. Our young
guests were challenged to create and manipulate robots to
perform tasks, which the winning team from Chelsfield
Primary School proved particularly adept at mastering.

The Department of Art

The Art department has been a hive of creativity this year,
with students continually pushing the standard of work.
Every year group has contributed to the departments
highlights. In the lower school, Year 7s produced
imaginative human sculptures, Year 8s created Identity
themed Totem Poles and Year 9 animated stop-motion
films, often with humorous results. Our KS3 students
also won the prestigious Bromley Schools Digital Art
Prize. GCSE students took trips to the several London
Galleries, collecting inspiration for their projects. The
sixth form Art trip to Amsterdam was a huge success,
with students having the opportunity to visit the Van
Gogh Museum, The Rijks Museum and Anne Franks
house. The most admirable areas of the department are
the clubs and societies, run by the students themselves.
This year Art History Society came into being, boasting
a wide range of high quality talks and a loyal cohort.
The Art prefects have given a new lease of life to Art
club, running fun and engaging activities for the lower
school including sculpture projects and spin art. The year
culminated in a breath taking sixth form exhibition held
in the chapel. This showed a wide range of inspirational
work, much of which demonstrated sophistication and
skill well beyond the years of the student. It was in the
beautiful, and often emotional, film work that the students
really epitomised the strong link between technical skill
and creativity that the department is always striving
towards. Congratulations to all the students and staff for
a truly fantastic year.

Siobhan Heraghty
S___Head of Art

Year 11 Art Trip

On the Tuesday 23rd October Year 11 Art students
visited London as part of the preparation for their current
Controlled Assignment entitled Great Britain. They
visited an interesting contemporary exhibition and talk
at the Saatchi Gallery just off the Kings Road followed
by an open-topped bus tour of sites and attractions.
Year 10 Art Trip
On Tuesday 2nd October the Year 10 Art group went on
a visit to London and a variety of galleries and museums.
The day started at the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe with
a fascinating talk about the first ever tunnel under a river
in the world. The group then walked along the Thames
river bank, stopping and discussing the changes in London
and the way the river has been used. There is still plenty of
historical evidence in the old cranes, docks, buildings and
views of the history of the river. 3000 ships at the height of
the British Empire on the Thames at any one time.
The group also visited an American artists show at the
White Cube gallery in Bermondsey Street, just behind
the old St Olaves school in Tooley Street. Further
walking then followed past the Globe and along to
The Tate Modern. The Turbine Hall was the site for
a conceptual piece where members of the public are
approached and engaged in conversation about peoples
stories. Several of the group were thus engaged.
The purpose of the visit was to record people and
environments in London, to be used back at school for
Art project work. Thanks go to Miss Heraghty and Mrs
Smith for accompanying the group.
Year 10 Maritime Museum Trip
As part of their introduction to GCSE Photography the
year 10 artists visited the National Maritime Museum in
Greenwich to be inspired by the photography of Ansel
Adams. Displaying a huge range of epic landscapes in
his distinctive dynamic style, students were impressed
by the iconic and beautiful images of American nature.
A highlight of the exhibition was the documentation
of water in its varying forms; ranging from exploding
geezers, to still, reflective pools and churning seas.
Students had a chance to leave their mark on the
exhibition by leaving comments on how Ansel Adams
had inspired them. There was just enough time to take
photographs of the newly restored Cutty Sark before
returning to school. Many thanks to the staff involved.
Royal Academy of Art Life Drawing
On Tuesday 5th February, the Year 12 and 13 Art
students spent the day in the Pavilion attending a life
drawing class arranged by the Royal Academy Outreach
programme, with a model and tutor.
It was a very intensive day spent exploring various ways

112 Olavian 2015

to portray the human figure. Working on the floor, on a

wide variety of exercises and in different media, the idea
was to widen the perception and approach to drawing.
Life drawing is probably one of the hardest challenges
and this was the first time that some of the students had
attempted this task. It was a tiring day, both physically
and intellectually, but all students worked very hard and
produced some excellent outcomes.
Bromley KS3 Art Exhibition
This years Bromley Key Stage 3 Art exhibition was held at
Hayes school on Thursday 7th March offering all schools in
Bromley a chance to showcase their Key Stage 3 Art work. As
in previous years, the visually stimulating artwork, including
those submitted by St Olaves students reflected the talented
artists in the Key Stage 3 cohort and we were thrilled to win
the prize for the best digital artwork in the Borough.

and many other famous artists. The Van Gogh museum,

with the accompanying audio tour taught us all a lot about
his techniques and life. The Stedelijk modern art gallery
was probably the most popular with a huge variety of
modern works displayed in the recently opened extension.
Other delights were the Cheese Museum,The Fluorescent Art
gallery or Electric Ladyland and the Foam photography and
David Bowie exhibitions. A canal tour and various markets
completed a varied and stimulating visit to a fascinating city.
Many thanks to Mrs Smith for her organisation and patience.

Year Eight Totem Poles

Taking inspiration from contemporary imagery and
tradition methods, Year 8 produced a series of fantastic
Totem Poles during an extra-curricular day. Each student
carved and painted their own block of wood which were
then attached together to create striking sculptures. Well
Done to the entire year group for all their hard work.
Art Exhibition
This annual event was again typified by the quality and variety
of art work produced by Year 12 and Year 13 artists.There were
paintings, sculptures, reliefs, graphic designs, photographs,
films and timelapse and the external examiner commented on
the wide range on show. A few pieces have been chosen for
the Creative Work section of this magazine, and can be found
towards the front.
VI Form Trip to Amsterdam
The 6th Form art group spent Activity Week 2 enjoying
the cultural delights of Amsterdam. We visited a wide
variety of galleries- not just the famous ones. The newly
refurbished Rijs museum for older artworks, including
Rembrandts Night Watch, delightful gems by Vermeer

Visit to Berlin

Visit to the Folkestone Triennial

Olavian 2015 113

114 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

Old Olavian

CONTENTS
115

Editors Notes
Chairmans Report

Chris Harris

Annual General Meeting

Paul Symmons

Annual Dinner

Eric Hibbs

Tooley Street 2015

Ron Cork

Motoring Fifty Years Ago

Robin Dadson

Poetry by Fintan Calpin

Fintan Calpin

St O-laves or St Olives

Leslie Watmore

116
117
120
120
122
130
130

Clubs and Societies

Old Olavians Lodge

Peter Hudson

Cricket Club Tour 2013

Lance Giles

Eton Fives Club

Howard Wiseman

In Memoriam

116 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

131
131
134
134

Editors Notes
hen I was a lad at St Olaves all those years
ago we used to sing Forty Years On and it
seemed difficult to imagine myself ever reaching such
a milestone. If there are any young men still at the
School who read these notes, I can assure them that
those forty years will come to pass and that, for most
of you, you will be able to say as I can now, Sixty Years
On. For that is how long it is since I left the School
in Tooley Street - 1955, the third year of our queens
reign.

the leading club, and anyone making a contribution

would be helping to keep their old school in that top
position.
As always we owe a great deal to the dedication and
hard work of Jane Wells at the school for collating
so much information and answering all sorts of
unreasonable questions from the editor of this section
of the magazine.
John Brown
Editor, Old Olavian

One of the advantages of living a long life is that

you will have many memories of good friends, good
experiences and of wonderful places visited. There
are, of course, disadvantages, one of the main ones
being that the body does not behave as it used to
and sprightly movements and quick reactions are not
quite what they used to be. And sadly, the longer you
live means that you are more likely to lose friends who
have helped to provide some of those good memories
gathered over the years. In this edition it is sad for
me to include the loss of two of those friends in Bert
Casey and Jim Biggs, both of them team-mates in the
Old Olavian Cricket team with Jim Biggs being one
of the very best Fives players in the country.
I am again grateful to those few Olavians who have
responded to my annual plea to write something
for this magazine: this year I am especially grateful
to Harold Wolfers and Robin Dadson for their very
readable contributions which I am sure will create
waves of nostalgia for our older readers and perhaps
open the eyes of those who have not yet lived so long.
In addition Ron Cork has sent some interesting
information about our old school building in Tooley
Street; and Leslie Watmore has sent some thoughts
on how the name of our school should be pronounced.
There must be so many Olavians out there, all of them
with so many stories to tell, but so few of them sharing
those stories with fellow old stuednts. Please spend
a little time to tell us how your life is going, what
unusual experiences you may have been through, and
thus help to make this section of our magazine even
more readable and memorable.
There is some exciting news about the building of
four new Fives courts at the School - any Olavian,
whether or not they were regular players, is invited to
contribute towards the cost of these. More details on
how to make a contribution can be found in Howard
Wisemans report on the OO Fives Club. For many
years now St Olaves has been the leading Eton
Fives school in the country and the Old Olavians

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 117

Chairmans Report
Here I sit, as I do every year in late September after the
annual Reunion, looking back over the last year.
My first duty in the Societys year is attendance at the
School Remembrance Service, which takes place in the
Great Hall. This year was no exception and on Tuesday
11th November the Headmaster welcomed Old Olavians
Alan Wright, Father Michael Walters, Graham Milne, Dr
Nol Tredinnick, Bill Prouse, John King, Greg Robinson
and me to his study before the service. It is good to
see Old Olavians attending, especially from The Old
Olavians Lodge who are always represented at this service
by Graham Milne (1956-63). Graham was joined by
Captain of School, Teddy McAleer, to lay the wreaths at
the memorial which was presented to the school by King
George V and Queen Mary. I would certainly encourage
those local enough to attend, to try to come along in 2016.
The date is announced quite early in the winter term, and
it will be in the newsletters and in the Events Calendar on
our website.
As I said last year I am very fortunate. I am often invited
as a guest to concerts and other events. So it was that I
again took my place in a packed Great Hall at the School
Christmas Concert. I was also there as a proud father and
the concert, with its mix of choral, classical, jazz and carols,
included Mr Prices neo-Baroque Concerto for oboe,
bassoon and strings, with my daughter Alicia on bassoon.
The choir also performed a spirited Vivaldis Gloria and the
whole evening was thoroughly enjoyable.
In March it was the school production of Oliver. I was
there to see Nancy (Alicia), although the whole show was
very professional. In fact I went both nights.
As all the school events are usually plugged by the
Headmaster in his newsletters, please let Jane Wells know if
you wish to attend any of them and we will arrange tickets.
Then the AGM was held on 18th March, and the minutes
are shown below. There were no resignations this year and
all of the committee members were re-elected. We would
really like to see more Old Olavians attending, and having
a say in what goes on. The date for the next one will be
published in the New Year. A minimum of four weeks
notice is given and the date will also be on our website.
This year I was invited to the 40s Lunch at the RAF Club
on Wednesday 22nd April, the day before the School
Commemoration Service. It was the biggest turnout for a
few years with fifteen of our membership making the trip
to Central London. I am sure that they wont mind me
saying that their ages ranged from 90 to a youthful 80, if
you ignored the ages of the Headmaster, Jane Wells and

118 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

me. Jane arranged the lunch and we were very well looked
after by the club. Some of the stories that were told at this
lunch reminded me of just how fast our world has changed,
like hearing from an Old Olavian, who as a schoolboy had
had to take cover from a strafing Messerschmitt.

In recent years, Old Olavians have been meeting up on the

morning of the annual Commemoration Service. A few
did this year, but the Tooley Street buildings are still not yet
opened as a hotel, so it was mainly just before and after the
service that we were able to catch up with each other. It
was particularly good to see Tony Jarvis and Des Coulson,
both ex-Headmasters, in attendance.
Old Olavians
attending the service are reserved seats, and invited to tea
afterwards, as long as you let Jane know you are attending.
Would you believe I missed the Headmasters garden party
again, and still have not had the opportunity to see the
magnificent roses? The year it had to be held in the Foyer
due to bad weather remains the only year I have been able
to accept the invitation. Maybe this year?
Whilst I have been fortunate to attend concerts and
productions through the year, most have been as a Dad.
However Alicia is now an Old Olavian herself and, as I
have already said, Old Olavians are welcome at all School
concerts and productions, and Jane will be very happy to
arrange tickets. I look forward to seeing some of you there.
Just a week or so ago I had my own little reunion with
classmates from 1B as we were known then in 1970, and
with one who joined us in the lower VI. There are six of us,
who in 1981/2 agreed to get together one weekend a year
to take part in some sporting activities to keep in touch.
Rules were written and ten events were chosen. This is
now down to seven events, mainly due to age, and this year
it was held midweek. Five of us managed to make it to
the 34th annual Competition. And due to bad weather, a
change of golf course from 18 holes at Lullingstone to 18
holes of Adventure Golf, I won the golf for the first time in
34 attempts. It didnt help me win the trophy, which for
the second year in a row went to Paul Ouseley.
If you are considering planning a reunion, let us know, and
we might be able to help. Or if you have had a reunion, let
us know about it by providing a report that we can publish
in the next Olavian.
And here we are back where we started, except almost a
year on. Friday 25th September and the Old Olavians
reunion at the RAF Club in Piccadilly. It was the largest
turnout for a few years and again had Old Olavians
attending who spanned nine decades of the School. Eric
Hibbs joined the School in 1937, when the headmaster
was Henry George Abel. He was there Eric, not H

G Abel. Five of the senior prefects who had left in the

summer came along as Old Olavians. They were students
under the current headmaster, Aydin na, who is only the
fourth headmaster since Henry Abel.
Mr na, our President, spoke about the School, their
achievements and the future, before proposing the toast to
the Old Olavians.
Replying this year to the Headmasters toast was Anthony
Wands (1960-67). He described himself as an Investment
Banker, and promised some irreverent thoughts about
School, the City and interesting messes he has got himself
into internationally, while keeping one eye on the thirty-year
rule. He definitely did not disappoint.
There are other recollections of the evening in the pages that
follow, so I will let them describe what they remember.
It is very likely that we will return to the RAF Club in
Piccadilly one day, but please ignore the AGM minutes. The
Reunion for 2016 will be on Saturday 24th September. It
will be a lunch and will be held in the Great Hall at the
school. The guest speaker will be Roger Brown (1958-66).
I am hoping that we will be able to watch some rugby in the
morning and arrange tours of the school. For those of you
who will need hotel accommodation, Orpington is having a
brand new Premier Inn built in the Walnuts. I am hopeful
that they will complete it on time and rooms will be available
by then.

to your LinkedIn profile, your Twitter account and your

Facebook page, should you wish to, on your personal details
page on the Societys website - www.oldolavians.net. That
is also where you should direct any Old Olavian that you
know is not receiving our newsletters.
And I will ask again what else you would like from the Old
Olavians Society, preferably with a suggestion of how it can
be achieved. Write or email via our administrator at the
School, Jane Wells at [email protected].
Looking forward to hearing from you.

ANNUAL GENERAL
MEETING
OLD OLAVIANS SOCIETY ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING

Attending: Chris Harris, Chairman, Bill Prouse, Secretary,

Paul Ouseley, Committee member, Graham Milne,
Committee member, Raj Purwar, Committee member, Ian
Giles, George Snelgrove, Jane Wells
Apologies: John Brown
1. Minutes of Last Meeting

And so that brings us to the beginning of a new year.

The third Olavian Lecture series is already under way. So
please read the newsletters, both ours and the Headmasters,
and visit our website and the Schools to keep up to date
with what is on offer. The last two lectures in this series are
both in February 2016, and the final one, on Monday 29th,
is given by Dr Stephen Lockwood, an Old Olavian himself.

Agreed
2. Matters Arising
The shareholdings of OOs and benevolent funds
are now with Rathbone Investment Management
Limited, following the move of the business
wholesale from Deutsche Bank.
Our adviser
(although we are using an execution only service) is
unchanged, as he moved with the book.

The Old Olavians Society, and ultimately the School, are

grateful to those who remember this great institution in their
own wills. No matter the amount, the funds can always be
put to very good use.
Last year the Society and the Benevolent Fund donated
15,000 to the School. The uses to which these funds are put
enable the School to continue to support the pupils in ways
that many state schools are just not capable of doing. One
only has to read the Olavian to see the breadth of student
activities and the talent nurtured by this great school.
The Old Olavians group on LinkedIn is nearly four hundred
strong now. If you cant find it, email me and I will invite
you to join. Please dont forget that you can add the links

The Chairman briefly spoke to the Head on the

subject of a balcony for the pavilion. It is not
something that would be seen as an improvement
that funds could be set aside for.
3. Chairmans Report
3.1

Membership
7741 names on database: 2575 with an email
address (up 140 on last year!!!) 2560 have opted in
to receiving emails

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 119

The database says 506 subscription members (only up

17). However only 382 paid 20 or more entitling
them to the magazine, and a further 333 paid
something, giving a total of 715 - 10,930.
18 paying sponsorship members (although the
database says 22 again being looked into), bringing
another 1,768.
3.2

4. Finance Report
4.1

2014
General Fund

3.3

21,805 26,347

Expenditure

25,191 23,462

Balance Sheet
Benevolent Fund Income
Expenditure

Keith Goldsack was going to look at our website for

us, with a view to making it more worth visiting, but
Jane has not been able to make time to introduce
Keith to the ways of our database.
With the committees lack of skills and perhaps time,
the Chairman has asked whether any 6th formers
would be able to help out. A committee has been
formed under the name Old Olavians Outreach
(OOOs). They are going to recommend changes to the
website as a tool for communication, and also contact
and encourage those persons that we have names for,
but without email addresses, to register their details.
Initially they will concentrate on leavers from the
last five years, and part of their brief is to strengthen
the ties to the school asking for help with interview
preparation, and talks to be given on university life
and subjects to be studied. Ultimately we will wish to
encourage people to pay the subscription.

2013

Income

Excess of Income/ (3,386) 2,885

Expenditure

Society Admin
This continues to be managed entirely by the schools
OO Administrator ( Jane Wells).

Accounts

35,862 39,248
1,701

1,245

5,000

5,000

Excess of Income/ (3,299) (3,755)

Expenditure
Balance Sheet

4.2

53,394 56,692

Notes - General Fund

Total Subs down 735 and investment income up
814
The dinner will have been subsidised from subs to
the tune of about 400 with some payments having
to be chased after the year end. As the objectives
of the Society are the bringing together of Old
Olavians for the furtherance of personal friendships
this was seen as justification. That is less than the
cost of six of the senior prefect team, the headmaster,
guest speaker and two members of staff, who we do
not charge.

Audit
4.3 Donation to School
Managed by the committee pro tem.

3.4

Magazine
Thanks again to John Brown, our editor, who would
welcome any memories of school life, staff etc. The
number of contributions declines each year.

3.5

The Chairman recommended a donation to the

school of a similar amount to last year a total of
15,000 including the sponsorship money. Last
year, most of the money was spent on repairing the
organ. A discussion took place about the proposal
and after some debate it was agreed unanimously
that:

LinkedIn Group
This now has 341 members, and is expected to grow
faster again this year.

a) A policy would be adopted that a minimum

accumulated fund of 25,000 would be retained.
b) A total of 15,000 would be made available for
the school to draw on this year and this would be
communicated to the Headmaster.
c) The Headmaster would be asked to make proposals
for spending some or all of this sum during the
year and the Committee would make a decision or

120 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

decisions by email.
4.4

Hidden Assets
Although not accounted for in the books, we still have
at least 25 pairs of cufflinks and 80 OO ties in stock.

4.5

Benevolent Fund
The trustees have for the last 3 years donated 5,000
for the headmaster to be used in cases of hardship.
The Headmaster has confirmed in writing that the
funds have made it possible for students to take part in
activities and trips that would otherwise be out of their
grasp financially. The chairman proposed that this is
repeated this year and this was agreed unanimously.

6.2

Fives
Howard Wiseman had advised the Chairman
that he is looking to raise funds to build four new
courts at the school which will allow the school to
host competitions. It is able to host matches on
the four courts we have and it remains one of the
most successful Eton Fives Clubs in the country,
currently having four of the top ten ranked players
in the country. As an example of their success, in
January The Alan Barber Cup was won at Eton by
the Old Olavians for the twelfth year in succession,
with a 2-1 win over the Old Salopians in the final.
However, he is not asking the OO Society for any
contribution

6.3 Masonic Lodge and Chapter

The Accounts for the OO Society and the Benevolent
Fund were accepted.
5. Functions Report
RAF Club venue was enjoyed by all. Noel Tredinnick
was a hit with all the diners. This year the proposed
speaker is Sir Anthony Wands. He is an Old Olavian
(1968-75), having left the School 40 years ago.
Anthony has promised some irreverent thoughts
about School, the City and interesting messes he has
got himself into internationally, while keeping an eye
on the thirty-year Rule.
We will return to the RAF on Friday 25th September.
Thanks go to our sponsor member at the RAF Club,
Mike Pugh.
A separate lunch for the 40s group was also held,
attended by 13 OOs and was a success.
Options for next year were discussed. The RAF club
is likely for 2016 and a lunch at the school in 2017.
6. Affiliated Club Reports
6.1

Cricket
Ian Giles - The 2015 tour was successful, playing six
and winning three. Two new young Olavians joined in
July for practice matches against the Old Wilsonians
and Old Dunstonians. We are trying to encourage
more 14 or 15 year olds to take an interest; some are
being coached by Chris Swadkin. Jane Wells will see
if a fixture against the school and at the school can be
arranged.
A 500 donation to the cricket club was agreed.

Graham Milne. This is expanding and has recently

absorbed other bodies. It is open to all OOs but it
is open to non-OOs as well.
7. Election of Officers
There were no persons wishing to stand down, so
all current members were proposed, seconded and
re-elected.
8. Other Business
It is clearer than ever that the school wish to tap into
our membership both for money and support for
students. Part of the Parents Association is an arm
called Ensuring Excellence (EEX). They are tasked
with finding funds for specific capital expenditure
items, such as an all-weather Astroturf pitch. Any
further request for funds is difficult and recognition
will always be given for the support that members
already give. One possible future way to help would
be to sponsor a classroom.
The other support that they are looking for is by
way of members addressing parts of the school with
career advice, and the provision of work experience
places.
We funded a new book of the lives of Olavians lost
in WW1. This is also available to Old Olavians and
their families, and anyone else interested in the story
of these lives. For each book sold, whether through
the society or the school, the society will receive a
small royalty. Peter Leonard completed the book
with the help from a couple of students, and Rob
Gardner (who sadly died in the New Year). Cost
was 500 to get to publication. It was out in time to

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 121

coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the start

of WW1. No receipts in last years accounts, and
sales have been slow. Sixty-seven copies have been
sold through the school, which will pay back just over
200 of our investment. The continued interest in all
things WW1 may eventually see our money back but
in any case it is a fantastic document, and copies have
been donated to both libraries. It was suggested that
the book be re-advertised through sQuid, the schools
electronic payment system, and that some copies be
taken to the dinner in September.
The meeting was adjourned before 8.45pm, and most of
those present retired to the Maxwell PH to reminisce again.

Annual Dinner
Our chairman persuaded Paul Symmons (1968-1975) to
write a report on his experiences at the annual dinner, and
it follows here:
Some two years ago now last September, a few of the class
of 75 found ourselves, somewhat by chance, attending the
Old Olavians dinner in the RAF club in Piccadilly. A great
night was had by all and the conversation flowed as if we

had never been apart, although for most of us it was thirtyeight years!
It was fairly late on that evening after a few pints of Spitfire,
in the basement pub of the RAF club, the name of which
escapes me, that we struck on the idea of trying to get as
many of the class of 75 as we could to the event in two
years time, September 2015, as our 40th anniversary.
So the task began using friends of friends, social media in
the form of LinkedIn and various other avenues to find as
many of us as possible. We managed to contact around
twenty-five of us all over the world including Hong Kong
and Egypt. This initial contact triggered some chance
meetings from someone tapping me on the shoulder in a
crowd of 85,000 in Twickenham saying, Hi Paul, Colin
here...we havent met for thirty-nine years but I recognised
your photo on LinkedIn!
Looking forward to our
get-together next year at the reunion...
Over the coming months emails circulated, stories were
regaled, from Chemistry lab explosions; to crucifixions
on window poles; to being wedged in quad litter bins for
hours; to being caned for daring to talk in the dining hall
over lunch. The anticipation rose....
The day finally came and we managed thirteen of us on
a long central table, headed by our illustrious speaker
Anthony Wands.
We travelled from Cheshire and
Yorkshire amongst other counties. What a great night,
with jaws aching from laughter, great food and great wine,
conversation flowing as if we had never been apart. The
power of the StOGS brand I guess.. Anthony royally
entertained us with memories and stories that I guess some
of the recent leavers found it hard to believe or indeed
comprehend.
Perhaps our 45th anniversary, in 2020 when retirement
beckons for some of us, we can look to exceed the number
achieved this year... we did not scratch the surface of the
stories to be shared or friendships reacquainted...
Eric Hibbs (1937-40)

Tooley Street - 2015

Ron Cork (1962-1968) has contributed some details of
the current renaissance of the Tooley Street school building
and adjoining sites as the One Tower Bridge Development.

The annual dinner

122 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

Edward Mountfords fine 1890s building ( grade 2 listed

) is now being converted into a luxury boutique hotel on
behalf of the Lalit Group. Much of the land around the
site, including what was the school playground, is now top
end residential development being marketed by Berkeley
Homes under the strapline, the best views in London.

EPR, the architects for the scheme, have posted some

information on their website concerning the conversion, as
follows:
1) the work involves the restoration of the Schools Great
Hall into the hotels restaurant & event space;
2) the Governors Room (with its panelled walls & elaborate
plaster ceiling) will be converted into a cocktail bar;
3) the Headmasters Room will be transformed into a luxury
suite;
4) there is to be a spa, gym and changing areas in the newlydeveloped basement underneath the building.
It will be interesting, to say the least, for many of us who
knew the original site, which St Olaves left to move to
Orpington in 1967, to see the end result.
St Olaves during the war and after
In the 2013 edition of The Olavian Robin Dadson told the
story of his schooldays at St Olaves during the mid- to late
1950s. Harold Wolfers (1943-50) has written to comment
about his own time at StOGS.
In the Summer of 1939 my local East London State School
sent me on holiday on a scheme to which my parents had
contributed called The Country Holiday Fund. I start
here as this gives an insight to how it was in the war years.
The holiday was to an unusual village in central Somerset
called Street which is situated about one to two miles from
the ancient and historic town of Glastonbury, famous for its
Tor Hill also being the burial place of King Arthur and
Queen Guinevere and also, according to local legend, the
place in England to which Joseph of Aramethia brought the
child Jesus Christ when he was twelve about two thousand
years ago. Street in its own right the birthplace of the worldrenowned Clarks Shoe Company and, although technically
a village, it has a population that exceeds many towns and
even our City of Wells!
Soon after I had returned home from the Country Holiday,
war was declared against Germany on the 3rd September
1939. Sensing the potential danger to London my parents
asked the lady whose house I had stayed on holiday with
to take me as an evacuee and she agreed. She had three
sons and shortly after I arrived two other boys came from
Dagenham, Essex and a mother with a young daughter
from West London. By early 1940 there were ten people
altogether living in this terraced house. It was crowded
and not the best of times. After the Blitz of 1940 had
progressed for some weeks with great intensity in the East

End of London where my parents lived and ran a Fish and

Chip Shop, my father said to my mother, whose nerves had
been shattered by the dreadful experience of the constant
bombing, Its better that one of us survives; you go down
to Street and stay with the boy. With that he sent her
down by train and she stayed with a family some distance
away from where I was living but still in the same village of
Street. A few months later my father came to see us and I
asked him to take me to the local open-air swimming pool,
Greenbank. At the pool he bought me an ice-cream at the
cafeteria, the lady in charge happened to be the next-door
neighbor to where I was staying. She said,Youd be better
taking your son back to bombed-out London than leave
him with that woman! My father had noticed that I had
lost a great deal of weight, my mum did overfeed me but by
now I was lanky. Upon hearing this my father, ever a man
of action, took me straight back to the house where I had
been living and said to the lady, He is no longer staying
here, please get his clothes, belongings and suitcase. With
that he took me away from that house. We then met the
Headmaster of the evacuee school I had been attending and
explained what had been happening and said, Im afraid
Im going to have to take my son back to war-torn London.
Whereupon to my fathers utter surprise, the headmaster
replied, No, dont do that, my wife and I have now bought
a house here and we would like your son Harold to come
and live with us.
This solved my parents worrying
problem and I finally lived happily with the headmaster,
his wife and his son for the next two to three years. When
I was about thirteen the headmaster said to me, I see, in
the educational supplement, there is an advertisement for
a London Grammar School which has been evacuated to
Torquay, Devon. Would you like to sit the examination?
The school of course was St Olaves. I passed and was
sent on to Torquay on the south Devon coast where I
arrived during the summer of 1943. I was delighted to
find myself at the seaside during the warm summer days
and I spent many delightful hours on the beach. One day,
however, whilst on the beach during the afternoon (we
shared a school with the local people splitting the days
between the schools), a German Messerschmitt fighter
plane came flying over the harbour and along the beach
machine-gunning everything on the beach. Hearing the
rat-a-tat-tat of the guns, I flung myself on the sand and, in
a matter of seconds, the plane had passed over and headed
out to sea. I remained motionless for a while clutching
the sand: I remembered to breathe again, then rose and
pinched myself to see if it was real and checked I had not
been shot. I lifted myself off the sand with a great sigh of
extreme relief and realized I had passed within an ace of
death and was extremely grateful to still be alive!
Most of the school remained in Torquay until 1945 when
WWII ended and we returned to London to resume our
education in Tooley Street which fortunately survived the

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 123

Luftwaffe! I remember two inconveniences were having

to travel during the week and on Saturdays to Dulwich that
took at least an hour changing at Peckham for a second bus
and the timings of the bridge raising at Tower Bridge. I
got caught a few times for being late into school! Other
than that it was a pleasure being back in London. As I
advanced up the school my peers and I began to receive
advantages, which would not have been available to most
children, such as going to see classical plays in the West
End.
My days at St Olaves were during the period when the
celebrated Dr. Carrington was at the height of his formidable
powers. I recall an occasion when we were evacuated in
Torquay and I was billeted about two miles away from the
school; I went to school by bicycle. One day, instead of
waiting to get onto my bicycle at the main road I mounted
it on the pathway, which led from the school directly to the
main road, which would have appeared dangerous to most
people apart from myself ! As I rode down the pathway I
saw Dr. Carrington walking up the pathway from the main
road. BOY! he shouted, Get off that bicycle and go up
to my room and wait for me outside! I knew what that
meant and, sure enough, ten minutes later Dr. Carrington
invited me into his room where he awarded me with his
customary six of the best on my hands following which he
said to me, Boy, that hurt me more than it did you! I still
find that hard to believe! After that event I took good care
not to incur Dr. Carringtons displeasure again and I clearly
must have succeeded in this resolve because in 1948 he
appointed me to be school Captain, much to my pleasant
surprise! I was the first Jewish school Captain. It (the
whack) was otherwise for my good friend Bill Jazzer Jayes
who was a regular candidate for the whack and who in
later life achieved fame by being the stuntman for Richard
Burton at the time when he was making his famous films
with the late legendary Elizabeth Taylor both of whom
he knew well. I went on to attain a State Scholarship to
Exeter University to study Law, I articled at Manches (now
Penningtons Manches) under the founder Sydney Manches
before going on to open my own business in Wimbledon
Village in 1963 with my late wife Betty. Im now 85, I have
one daughter Laura and two active grandchildren, Oska &
Morgan, to whom I gift private education as I had been
given many chances. I live with them in Street, Somerset
across the road from the Headmasters house, I have many
fond memories here and I also spend a few months a year
in the USA. I really enjoy reading the Olavian and hope
you will like my story.
Harold C Wolfers (1943-50)

Motoring Fifty Years ago

Quite recently a young friend of ours purchased her second
car having kept her very first vehicle for just about a year.

124 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

This set me thinking about my earliest couple of cars and

the vast difference between motoring in the early 1960s
and that of today. Here are a few of my reflections and
memories of all those years ago and of two quite remarkable
motors.
When you come round to my place at the weekend Ill
have to introduce you to Lulu I casually remarked to my
girl friend one dull February evening in 1962.
She looked at me a bit quizzically and you could see exactly
what she was thinking, So who is this other female then?
Imagine her relief when she met Lulu a few days later and
discovered her to be a rather battered Ford Anglia shooting
brake dating from 1939. Yes, I had purchased my first car!
During the post-war era far fewer families owned their
own vehicle and those that did very often only had the
use of one as it came as part and parcel of a job. Such
was the case with my father who was employed as what
was known as a commercial traveller at the time, rather
than a company representative, and consequently he had
the benefit of a company car. Although this was highly
acceptable to us cars were in quite short supply in the fifties
as a result of wartime austerities and many companies
grabbed whatever they could get for their travelling staff
members. My earliest recollection was a black Ford 8
that was built even before Lulu which the family fondly
christened Rosie. Some time later my father accepted
a job with a different organisation that initially provided
him with a tiny Fiat which we dubbed The Roller Skate.
A fair few of those vehicles that you did see about were
in something of a dubious condition which eventually led
to the introduction of the MOT test for road worthiness
although, in those early days, attention was only paid to
brakes, lights and steering which would be passed provided
they functioned to a reasonable degree.
A vehicle
covered by an MOT certificate could lead an unwary
buyer into a false sense of security as they imagined, quite
incorrectly, that a roadworthy vehicle had been scrutinized
throughout. A car might well come with a valid MOT
certificate but, provided the brakes, lights and steering
were deemed OK, the engine, gearbox, exhaust system and
other vital components could still be totally knackered.
There were numerous Car Dealers who operated from the
many bombsites still to be seen and much of what they
offered could be highly questionable and would have been
immediately condemned by todays standards but this stock
was legal at the time - well, usually. In comparison to such
traders Arfer Daley would have been thought of as quite
a high-class gentleman from whom to purchase a motor.
Now I have to admit Lulu was past her prime and in need
of some care and attention but at least she was a CAR!

The first task was to see that she was fit to pass the
new-fangled MOT test by making her look more
presentable. This necessitated patching up one of the front
wings that had a large hole in it with fibre-glass and then
renewing parts of the timber body shell that, in theory, held
the wooden body panels in place. In actual fact in some
areas it was only the panels that kept sections of the body
shell in position but we got it sorted out with replacement
lengths of timber. The next thing on the agenda was to
swap the existing engine under the bonnet for the spare
sitting in the back that had been included in the 15
pounds I had paid for her. This was achieved with the
help of a friendly mechanic my father knew but, having
got the thing installed, Lulu refused to start, not even with
the use of the starting handle which one inserted through
the front radiator grill. Eventually the mechanic had a
bright idea! Firstly he dripped a small amount of oil into
each of the four cylinders via the spark plug-hole to aid
compression. We then reinserted the plugs and replaced
the 6-volt battery with a 12-volt one, pressed the starter and
awaited the outcome. I can say from personal experience
that attaching a 12-volt battery to a 6-volt system proves
quite interesting.
The starter motor fairly whizzed
round and the radiator fan reminded us of a Spitfire or
Hurricane propeller as it moved so fast but all was well
and Lulu roared into life for the first time under her new
engine. Driving back to my home about half-a-mile from
where the operation had taken place was very memorable
mainly due to the clouds of smoke which poured out of
the exhaust pipe as the oil was burned off in the cylinders.
It was as if Lulu was attempting to rival a Royal Naval
smokescreen of the two world wars. Brakes, lights and
steering were checked and Lulu was subsequently granted
an MOT certificate and ready for use on the road. The
final project was to repair the choke which, in vehicles of
that era, was utilized to enrich the petrol/oil mixture going
into the cylinders when starting from cold. Lulus choke
simply didnt operate and, in order to enrich the mixture,
it was necessary to bung a large cork into the top of the
carburettor which then had to be removed once the engine
had started and warmed up. To say the least this was
somewhat inconvenient but, fortunately, it was quite easy
to effect a repair by using bits of wire and the thing worked
perfectly well thereafter.
In order to keep costs down it was quite possible at that
time for an older, more experienced driver, within a family
to insure a car in their name and nominate a younger
relation as a second driver which is exactly what my father
was able to do on my behalf. Insurance was taken out on a
Third party, fire and theft basis which reduced things even
further. I now understand that the former arrangement is
no longer possible and Third party, fire and theft is just as
expensive as Fully comprehensive, presumably as a result
of insurance companies since realizing they could squeeze

even more money out of Joe Public by changing the rules.

Upon discovering I had obtained a car one of my very good
friends, also an ex-Olavian, immediately decided he must
have one as well. A week or so later a frantic tooting of a
car-horn could be heard from my home and George (name
changed to protect the innocent) came roaring along the
road in a vehicle of a similar vintage to that of Lulu. The
thing seemed to be in a somewhat better condition than
Lulu but it soon became very clear that George only had a
very rudimentary idea of how things worked. It transpired
that he had been so anxious to obtain a car of his own he
had drawn out all his savings and gone along to a local
bombsite dealer. There was only one vehicle on show that
was within his budget so he approached the proprietor
saying Ill have that one. The man must have thought it
was Christmas as he took Georges money, 70 odd in total,
and without a word gave him the relevant documentation
and keys and that was that - no test-drive, instructions or
anything! Needless to say the owners manual had long
since been lost so, by the twisting, pulling and pushing of
various knobs, switches and levers we managed to puzzle
out the controls. By turning one switch the word side
was revealed and a second click brought head into view so
it obviously operated the lighting system. Sadly, although
the sidelights worked perfectly, the off-side headlight
refused to come on. Ive been done. Its going back,
shouted George as he jumped in and disappeared in a
cloud of dust back towards his bombsite supplier. Within
a matter of minutes he was back. Got it fixed without any
argument, he announced. Trouble was the offending light
still refused to come on when the switch was operated.
Oh dont worry, exclaimed George; The dealer showed me
what I have to do upon which he jumped out and gave the
front wing a hefty kick which caused the headlight to shine
forth. Just how he intended to keep the thing illuminated
during a prolonged drive at night was never discovered as
he managed to write the car off within a few weeks getting
a speeding fine in the process.
Of such were some of the motors on sale at bomb site
dealerships and of such were the sort of rogues that offered
them.
Naturally my girl friend wanted to be taken for a ride in
Lulu immediately she saw her but it was only then we
discovered that Lulu had a bit of a jealous streak and
refused to start up when a female was aboard. As a result
we often had to play out a bit of a pantomime whereby my
girl-friend would hide until I had got Lulu started and
then jump in before the car realized what was going on.
The acquisition of a car opened up a whole new world to
us as we could now take regular trips from where I lived
in Denmark Hill, South London, which is situated just

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 125

a couple of miles south of London Bridge, out into the

countrified areas of Kent and Surrey that earlier we could
only have reached by train. As a boy I had experienced
a good number of such excursions in my fathers car but
my girl-friend had hardly visited any places which lay but
a few miles outside the metropolis. Accompanied by a
couple of friends we would take regular Sunday jaunts to
destinations such as Box Hill, Warlingham, Oxted and
Shoreham, Kent, as well as other locations not served by a
railway where we could enjoy the sights, sounds and smells
of rural England.
The performance of Ford Anglias in general could only
be described as quaint. The official maximum speed was
around 57mph although I once got Lulu to register 69
mph on the speedometer whilst going downhill on the
Caterham bypass with the wind behind her! Her normal
cruising speed when travelling outside built-up areas
and their 30 mph speed limit was around 45mph which
returned between 30 to 35mpg. Acceleration was nothing
but phenomenal with the maximum speed being reached
in just under 40 seconds. As far as I can recall speed limits
were not quite so stringent as they are today and there was
actually no top limit of 60mph on country roads in those
days. This did not really matter as most cars could barely
reach that sort of speed anyway and a machine capable of
doing 80 mph was regarded as very fast indeed. Motorways
were a new innovation so they did not really come into the
equation. Lulu was provided with only three forward gears
and synchromesh was only fitted between second and third
which meant you prayed you did not encounter a steep hill
that could not be climbed in second. It was possible to
drop down into first by double de-clutching which took
a fair amount of practice and resulted in horrible grinding
noises from the gearbox if you got it wrong. This operation
would be a bit too complicated to describe, assuming I
could actually remember how it was done in the first place.
The windscreen wipers were something of a joke and
operated on a vacuum system created from the engine. The
things slowed down as the speed of the car got faster and
stopped altogether at anything over about 45mph. The
same thing happened when travelling uphill which meant,
in a heavy downpour, it was necessary to slow down in
order to be able to see anything whatsoever ahead much to
the frustration of any following drivers who had cars fitted
with electrically-powered wipers that kept going. The use
of disc-brakes was an exception rather than the rule on
smaller cars and, with drum-brakes on all four wheels, it
is undoubtedly a good thing that maximum speeds were
quite modest as that meant a car could be brought to a
halt within a reasonable distance. Hydraulically-operated
braking systems were in use but not on all vehicles and
Lulu was fitted with a system of metal rods, linked
together by cotter-pins, by which any pressure applied to
the brake-pedal was transferred to the four brake-drums.

126 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

Now this is all very well but cotter-pins wore down after
a time and it was essential to ensure that the brakes on all
wheels operated simultaneously to avoid the car slewing
to one side or the other when the brakes were applied.
In theory a balance was maintained by adjusting each
brake-drum in turn by jacking up each wheel and turning
a ratchet by means of a screwdriver through a hole on
the rear plate of each brake. The idea was that you spun
each jacked-up wheel whilst adjusting its ratchet until the
brake linings started to engage the drum. Upon hearing
a grinding sound, which indicated the brake-shoes were in
contact with the drum, you released the ratchet one notch
and proceeded to the next wheel where you performed the
whole operation all over again. I honestly dont think this
system really ever truly balanced the brakes but, with the
low maximum speeds that could be achieved, nobody was
too worried.
On reflection I almost certainly spent more time taking
Lulu apart and putting her together again than I ever
did actually driving. Much of the attention given was
conducted with me lying in the road outside my home
underneath the car, fiddling with one thing or another. This
appeared to fascinate the young daughter of a neighbour of
ours, some five years my junior, who would often stand by
the car talking to me as I was underneath carrying out the
current repair. We are still in touch and she continues to
refer to me as the grease monkey whilst I tell her I would
recognize her anywhere just by her legs.
Nowadays a drive to any part of the UK is considered
quite normal and modern vehicles are happily taken on far
more lengthy holidays abroad. In 1962 it was more of an
expedition for owners of older cars to venture on longer
journeys but, undaunted, a friend and I planned such an
adventure for July of that year. My friends father, who was
sadly deceased, had been born in Tavistock in Devon and my
pal had never visited his birthplace. I had spent a holiday in
south Devon for each of the preceding four years and had a
fair knowledge of the area so Lulu was tasked with taking
the pair of us on a weeks camping tour westwards with the
ultimate aim of reaching Tavistock some 220 miles from
our South London homes. We imagined we had planned
our adventure down to the very last detail but, oh for the
optimism of youth! Esso Petroleum were publishing road
maps at the time so I duly purchased one for a tanner - six
old pence - which covered the whole of southern England
and was probably scaled at 10 miles to the inch. Our one
and only tent was a lightweight affair measuring about 6 6
x 6 x 3 6 which my parents had bought for me years before
from an army surplus store for the purpose of camping
in our back garden. The groundsheet was a separate item
which had to be pegged out within the tent once it was up.
We had no sleeping bags but took a couple of blankets each
to keep us warm at night and our cooking arrangements

consisted of a large 7-pint Party keg beer-can with holes

bashed through it and a supply of broken up wooden crates
to burn in our brazier. Thus, so magnificently equipped,
we chugged off westwards with the intention of making a
slow outward journey over a period of several days before
reaching Tavistock. By the evening we were in deepest
Dorset and decided to find a campsite and stop for the night,
but this proved more difficult than we had anticipated. No
matter whom we asked nobody could direct us to a suitable
venue and it appeared that not a single person knew of a
farmer in the whole of the county who would be prepared
to grant us permission to put up our tent in a corner of a
field overnight. Eventually darkness fell and I had to call
upon Lulus headlights for the very first time. They did
actually work but their beam was limited to around thirty
feet ahead meaning our speed had to be reduced to a crawl
as we drove on. Eventually we spotted an open gateway
in the light of Lulus two-candlepower headlamps and, in
desperation, we pulled into the field beyond. Permission
or no permission we had to camp somewhere and we would
be gone very early in the morning so nobody would be
any the wiser. Despite a rather odd smell the tent was
erected in the dark as we didnt want to run Lulus battery
down and a fire was got going on which to cook a belated
supper. It was then we realized that our supply of broken
timber for cooking purposes was not going to last us two
or three days as we had optimistically intended as, within
fifteen minutes, it had all been consumed. We found
we had a kettle of lukewarm water with which to make a
couple of cups of coffee and, after that, took our blankets
and gratefully crawled into the tent to sleep, very tired but
still enthusiastic to be under the stars well into the West
Country.
That didnt last for long as the blankets did not provide the
cosy warmth we had anticipated. We had reasoned, after
all, that we would be travelling in the height of summer
when the nights would be warm and balmy and we were
both young and fit. In actual fact it was freezing and by
around 3am we had abandoned the tent for Lulu where
we spent the rest of our first night. We slumbered on until
dawn and, as it broke, we got the distinct impression that
Lulus windscreen had been cracked overnight as we could
not see out. Could it have been some vengeful farmer who
had crept up on the car during the darkness and paid us
back for entering his field without asking? We stumbled
out of the car into the half-light only to find the windscreen
was covered in a thick layer of frost and we later learned it
had been the coldest July night in south Dorset since the
year dot. The reason for the odd smell we had noticed the
previous evening also became apparent as the sun rose to
reveal we were surrounded by a ring of dustcarts having
camped overnight in the local refuse yard. Swiftly we took
down the tent, packed up our belongings, got Lulu going,
pointed her bonnet westwards once more and continued

on our quest.
With such an early start, and with far fewer vehicles on
the roads in those days, we had a most enjoyable run in
the early summer sunshine for the next couple of hours
or so without encountering a single other vehicle. Before
much longer we had crossed the county border into
Devon and took our time to explore delightful places
such as Beer, Ladram Bay and Otterton before putting
up overnight in East Budleigh. I am pleased to say that,
after the experiences of our first night, the temperatures
rose and the tent came into its own. We also managed
to scrounge further supplies of firewood so all was well
cooking-wise. Over breakfast on day three we consulted
our map and calculated we were within fifty miles of our
target so made the decision we would arrive in Tavistock by
that evening and spend a couple of days in the area. The
most direct route seemed to be to head for Ashburton then
cross Dartmoor via Dartmeet and on to Tavistock. Now
I had visited Dartmoor on a number of occasions during
previous holidays, but these were mainly on day-trips by
coach. Lulu chugged purposefully forward to Ashburton,
up the steep hill through Holne Chase and, climbing ever
higher, on to Poundsgate beyond. After Poundsgate we
came upon the steepest incline we had yet encountered,
with two hairpin bends thrown in, but Lulu negotiated the
hill, if somewhat slowly. Some miles further on we arrived
at the top of the long steep descent to Dartmeet and it was
then Lulu started to show signs of being unwell. There
was nothing for it but to pull into the car-park at the foot of
the hill and review the situation. As luck would have it, the
road beyond Dartmeet, leading to Tavistock ten miles or
more further to the west, went up an even steeper hill than
the one we had just descended so we reluctantly retraced
our steps back to Poundsgate where we had spotted a small
garage. In ascending the hill Lulus symptoms grew worse
and there were all sorts of odd noises coming from beneath
the bonnet. We managed to get to Poundsgate and, as
we pulled into the garage forecourt, the elderly proprietor
came across from the wall upon which he had been leaning
and said in his delightful Devon accent, I eard ee acomin.
Fortunately he was able to take Lulu in charge there and
then and soon diagnosed the problem, but told us he would
have to order spare parts and the job might take a couple
of days as a result. Luckily there was an adjacent campsite
where we were able to stay whilst we waited. Sure enough
Lulu was ready by day five although our friend from the
garage advised us to find less challenging terrain for the
rest of our holiday to avoid further trouble. Seems the oil
in the sump had got a bit on the low side, no dashboard
warning lights then, and had run to the back of the engine
when ascending steep hills with fatal results. I still have
the bill for that repair somewhere and it totals less than 5
which includes two gallons of petrol as well as the spare
parts, labour and fresh oil for the sump.

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 127

Accepting his expert advice we abandoned our aim of

reaching Tavistock and headed for the Dartmouth area,
which I knew well from earlier years, where we spent the
remainder of our weeks holiday camping on a farm with
the permission of a most affable farmer.
After a couple of days more Lulu said goodbye to Devon
and safely transported us back to south London in one
long hop thus bringing to an end the first of her two epic
voyages to the west country.
At the end of August we had a family holiday booked
in a cottage just outside Dartmouth so Lulu was asked
to venture westwards once again with myself driving
accompanied by my girl-friend and my aunt. As I have
mentioned there were few motorways in the early 1960s
and our July expedition had led me to discover very few
towns were by-passed either so journey times could be quite
prolonged. As a result we decided to leave London on the
Friday evening and travel via the A30 overnight rather than
use the more southerly route I had followed a month earlier.
By so doing we hoped to avoid the heavy traffic congestion
that was then a feature of the Exeter area each summer
Saturday during late July and throughout August. During
the previous weeks Lulus remarkable headlights had been
boosted by the installation of a spotlight so I anticipated
night-driving would be greatly improved. Wrong! With
the heavy evening traffic through the London suburbs it
took us for ever to reach Staines where we were to join the
A30. By the time we did so dusk was falling and I soon
discovered the main difference between our chosen route
and the one I had taken in July. The A30 was a major
trunk-road and thus carried a far greater volume of traffic
including a large percentage of goods vehicles and longdistance passenger coaches. Even with the newly-fitted
spotlight the illumination generated was simply drowned
out by the lights of oncoming vehicles and our speed had to
be reduced accordingly in the interests of safety. Eventually
we did make it, however, and had no problems with Lulu
throughout the fortnight. During that time she took us on
a number of trips locally and, on one magnificent occasion,
reached Tavistock carrying myself, my girl-friend and my
grandfather (to say nothing of Rags, the dog) and even
went on into Cornwall. All too soon our fortnight came
to an end and I drove Lulu back to south London without
incident, but this time reverted to the more southerly route.
In November we took it upon ourselves to ask Lulu to
follow the veteran cars on their annual London to Brighton
rally which she did without question. Imagine our delight
when the local TV news that evening broadcast some
film of the rally and actually gave a brief glimpse of Lulu
bowling along merrily.
The winter of 1962-1963 was quite severe and, sadly, Lulus

128 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

dislike of cold weather became all-too-soon apparent. Day

after day she simply refused to start and, just about a year
after I had bought her, I got the chance of replacing her
with a little Austin 8 dating from 1947. Lulu had been
fun but was cold and draughty at the best of times so the
chance was too good to miss and she had to go. We said
goodbye in a scrap-dealers yard in Loughborough Junction
a mile from where I lived and I assume she was finally
broken up but who knows? Those bombsite dealers were
still about and maybe she was even sold on.
Officially the Austin 8 was christened Son of Satan but
was only ever referred to as the Little Austin. It was
somewhat smaller than Lulu but sported four doors as
opposed to two and was rather more comfortable. Best of
all it started without too much trouble, well usually! Even
so, to the obvious delight of my young neighbour, it still
required regular attention so she could continue to talk to
me as I struggled to put right some defect or another.
Mechanical matters were far simpler then and it was not
too difficult to replace a clutch or even remove an entire
engine whilst the car was parked in the road outside your
home. As the little Austin was a bit heavy on oil I decided
to have the cylinders rebored and, with the help of a couple
of friends, lifted the engine block out by roping it to a
shortened length of scaffolding pole and raising it clear of
the engine compartment. It was re-installed by the same
method.
My girl-friend was quite impressed as the Austin seemed
to accept her and would start up without sulking even if
she was sitting in it. Our regular trips into the countryside
outside south London continued as before but, as the Little
Austin was somewhat more reliable and economical (by
returning up to 50 mpg on a run) and would cruise along
at 50 mph without too many objections, our range was
extended westwards beyond Guildford and southwards to
the Sussex coast. On one such Sunday jaunt we had spent
a day at Frensham Ponds not far from Farnham in Surrey.
It was a glorious summers day and my pal and I took out
a hired canoe leaving the girls beside the car. Due to total
inexperience on my part plus a mix-up in communications
we managed to capsize the thing thus getting ourselves
soaking wet. Fortunately we had a change of some items
of clothing and managed to dry the rest off in the sunshine
before going off for an exploratory walk. Oh joy, a sudden
heavy downpour soaked us for a second time before we
could get back to the car and we had to dry off all over
again. Late in the afternoon we set off for home through
another sharp downpour which was over within a matter of
minutes. It was very hot and humid and I had my window
open as did my pal who was sitting behind me on the rear
seat. He had just remarked, Thank God we are in the car.
At least I wont get wet again today when we came upon

a dip in the road filled with rainwater. In driving I saw it

coming and ducked forward but he did not and there was
an almighty splash as we hit the puddle a split second after
he had made the remark. The look on his face, which I saw
in the driving mirror, was an absolute picture of disbelief
as a sheet of water shot through his open window and hit
him fair and square. Laugh? I thought my legs would
never dry!
The first lengthy expedition I asked the Little Austin
to take me on was a weeks tour of Devon and Cornwall
with the ultimate aim of reaching Lands End. On this
occasion I was accompanied by another Old Olavian
friend, whom I shall refer to as Reg for the purposes of
this narrative, who was engaged to be married and wanted
the chance of an economical holiday as he was saving up
hard for his wedding. Having learned from my mistakes
from the trip undertaken in Lulu the previous year we
had both purchased a crude sort of sleeping-bag, included
extra blankets in our luggage, took along a primus stove
for cooking, a paraffin hurricane-lamp for illumination
and armed ourselves with a Guide to Campsites in the
West Country as a precaution. The lightweight tent,
however, remained our only night-time shelter. Leaving
south London on a summers Friday afternoon we headed
for a campsite about eighty miles to the west that we had
selected from our guide and had phoned prior to setting
off to ensure we could get in. In theory there were two
carloads destined for Lands End, the second being
driven by George, the friend I mentioned earlier who had
written off his first car a few weeks after buying it. He
had since acquired a rather grand roadster model which
looked fine but did less than 20 mpg in London and only a
little better on a run. What with this and the amount he
had borrowed to buy the thing in the first place I got the
impression it was proving a terrible strain on his finances.
We had arranged to meet up at a designated spot near
to our selected overnight campsite but when Reg and I
arrived, much to our surprise, George and his faster car
were nowhere to be seen. We waited for a good length
of time but they failed to show up so, as it started to get
dark and, remembering the refuse-yard incident, we drove
off to set up camp. When we got there we found George
and his party had arrived hours before having forgotten to
stop and link up with us as arranged. Our tent was duly
erected and then came the matter of lighting the primus
stove to enable us to cook supper. Night had fallen but we
did have the benefit of the hurricane lamp so we filled the
primus with paraffin in its light and set about pumping up
the pressure. We worked away merrily for about twenty
minutes with absolutely no results whatsoever, relighting
the paraffin-soaked cotton-wool in the upper tray on more
than one occasion. Eventually we decided to give up and
make do with a cold snack so I opened the pressure release
valve a mere fraction at which there was a loud whoosh and

a column of flame leaped twelve feet into the air, rather

like an Elizabethan beacon warning of the approach of
the Spanish Armada, and illuminating an area of about a
hundred yards in radius. Hooray, the thing was going but
a few other disgruntled campers peered out to see what was
going on! Supper eaten we settled down in the tent for the
night but, when we got up the following day, everything
seemed to reek of paraffin. Anybody who has read Three
Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome will be familiar with
his views on the subject of taking such oil along on a
camping trip and I now heartily agree with his comments.
The next morning there was a bit of a confrontation!
George had persuaded his group that they actually wanted
to go to Weymouth and spend a week there but I had set
out for Lands End and that is where I was going even if
I continued on alone. Dear old Reg opted to stay with
me so we bid the other group farewell and turned west as
they headed south for Weymouth. I learned years later
that George had never really intended to continue on into
Cornwall as he simply could not afford the cost of fuel for
his vehicle, even though his companions had agreed to chip
in, and was too embarrassed to admit it. He also had his
mind set on the chance of meeting girls in Weymouth but
he was apparently disappointed in this also although both
his companions fared much better.
We continued on in the Little Austin and were soon well
into Somerset when a following driver drew my attention
to the fact that my brake-lights were not working. Now
these lights on the Little Austin had never given any
trouble although there was an auxiliary reversing light
that had been installed by a previous owner that had never
worked. Initially I assumed a fuse had blown which I
changed immediately - in those days you never ventured
anywhere without a full tool-kit and a host of assorted
spare parts. Hmmm! Still no brake-lights but, for some
inexplicable reason, the reversing light worked a treat.
Nothing for it but to crawl underneath and take a look to
see if there were any broken wires. I found an absolute
maze of wiring although none seemed to be hanging loose
anywhere but, after about an hour of prodding and poking,
the brake-lights resumed working and the reversing light
went dead again. I never did find out the cause of this
phenomenon but there was never another problem in that
department for the following two years that I retained
the car. Had we been across the Devon border I would
have put it down to mischievous pixies but we were still in
Somerset. The next few days were quite uneventful and we
achieved our goal by reaching Lands End before turning
for home. Occasional overnight rain had resulted in
drying out operations being required to damp bedding but
we managed these quite successfully. On more than one
occasion we had been granted permission to stop overnight
in a field by a hospitable farmer which led to morning

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 129

ablutions being taken out in the open in a stream. We had

planned our first nights stop on the return journey would
be somewhere on the north coast of Cornwall and we were
passing through the small town of Portreath when the
Little Austin gave a sudden cough and ground to a halt.
Upon opening the bonnet we found the fuel inlet pipe to
the carburettor to be leaking badly and closer examination
revealed the thread in the body of the thing had stripped
through vibration, the inlet pipe had come loose and could
not be screwed back in place. Well, I know I said you
carried all manner of spares in those days but a carburettor
was not one of them so we were stuck. Fortunately we
learned from a passing local that there was a breakers yard
a few minutes walk away - what town did not have a local
car-breaker then? - so we took off the offending unit and
soon had a replacement. Within minutes it was installed
into the Little Austin, the engine roared into life and we
were off ! Oh no we werent for, as soon as you revved up
to pull away, the engine died out. It would happily start
up again but, apply a few revs, and it cut out once more.
We simply couldnt fathom it out but then I had an idea.
We made a loop in a bit of string with a slip-knot which
we placed around the carburettor and out over the fuelpipe which was then pulled tightly into place by means of
the knot. The joint was then plastered with a thick layer
of Gun Gum, intended for patching holes in an exhaust
pipe, and then swathed in a bandage from our first-aid kit
which had been soaked in gasket seal. The layers were
built up, more Gun Gum, more soaked bandages, until we
had covered the joint with a thick cocoon about the size of
a coconut. The essential questions were: was it air/petrol
tight, would the engine start and would it hold? Oh joy, the
engine started and we set off eastwards with the intention
of getting as far as we could towards Dartmouth where I
had a good few helpful friends. Eventually, of course, it
started to get dark but we spotted a muddy lay-by with
garage and workshop a hundred yards or so beyond on the
outskirts of a village so we decided to stop there, sleep in
the car overnight, and call into the garage for advice when
it opened the next morning. There was not a great deal of
room in the Little Austin so we clambered into the back
seat, made ourselves as comfortable as we could, wrapped
ourselves in the blankets and prepared to try to get some
sleep. Reg, who was a smoker, insisted on having his last
cigarette before settling down so, after a bit of a search, he
managed to find his cigarettes and lighter and lit up. He
then promptly dropped the thing down among the blankets
and other paraphernalia piled into the back of the car along
with the pair of us. The only solution was a swift evacuation
and search for the lighted cigarette because, after all, there
was not only a faint lingering odour of paraffin but the
added smell of petrol as well. After a prolonged hunt in
the dark we eventually located the offending cigarette only
to find it was out and, in fact, had apparently never been
alight in the first place. Smoking in the car was banned for

130 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

the rest of the holiday.

Needless to say sleeping in the back of a small car is not
the most comfortable of things to do and, as a result, we
were up very early the next morning. By chance there
was a public seat some yards away from the layby on the
opposite side of the road in the direction of the garage so
we chose to take the primus and cook our breakfast there
whilst sitting on the seat. As we sat there, both looking
very dishevelled after our uncomfortable night, we spotted
an early riser approaching us from the centre of the village.
She suddenly stopped dead, crossed the road and ran past
us on the opposite side. This was repeated several times
more as local residents made their way to work and we
found it very puzzling. Eventually the garage opened and,
once we had explained our problem, the mechanic invited
us to bring the Little Austin in for further investigation.
When he opened the bonnet and saw our cocoon he stood
up with a look of amazement on his face: And how far did
you get with that? he asked.
From Portreath I responded.
Bloody hell, he exclaimed, Thats all of seventy miles. Ive
seen some bodging in my time but I take my hat off to you
guys.
The problem was quickly resolved as he re-threaded the
damaged joint and fitted an oversize connection to the
fuel-pipe. Apparently, although the carburettor purchased
from the breaker was exactly the same size externally as the
original, it was for a 10hp engine rather than an 8hp one,
and as soon as the throttle pedal was revved the engine
flooded.
We continued on to Dartmouth and spent the last
few remaining days of our holiday nearby. Reg had
accompanied me to the area on a previous holiday, which
had been taken in the cottage mentioned earlier, so we
were both familiar to the landlord in the local pub. He
greeted us warmly when we popped in for lunch and asked
us where we had been. When we revealed we had travelled
up from Cornwall and spent the previous night sleeping
in the car he asked, See anything of those two convicts
that escaped from Dartmoor Prison yesterday? Suddenly
the reason for the antics of the local folk in Cornwall that
morning became clear.
A few days later we were back in south London after an
uneventful drive home.
The Devon cottage had been booked once again for a
fortnight in August so the Little Austin was loaded up
once more with as much as possible being packed into the
small boot with any excess baggage being accommodated

on a roof-rack or squeezed inside. In addition to myself and

my girl-friend, my aunt and cousin were to travel with us
which meant the interior became very cramped indeed but
we were soon off. As before, we chose to drive overnight
on the southern route via Winchester, Dorchester and
Bridport in order to avoid the anticipated heavy holiday
traffic on the Saturday. Night fell long before our journey
ended and I am pleased to record that the lights on the
Little Austin were significantly better than those of Lulu.
A very noticeable difference between motoring in the
1960s and the present day was that, after about 2300 hours
in the depths of rural Hampshire and Dorset, you met very
few other vehicles on the road. I recall quite distinctly
covering around twenty miles or more during that journey
and not encountering another moving car. Having crossed
the Devon border, and with the greater portion of our
drive behind us, we decided to pull into a lay-by for a few
hours sleep before continuing on once dawn had broken.
Quite recently I attended The Torbay Steam Rally which
included an exhibition of vintage cars and, much to my
delight, there stood an Austin 8 exactly the same as the one
I had owned all those years ago. What immediately struck
me was the diminutive size of the car and I tried to fathom
out how four adults with all their holiday luggage had
once crammed into such a model and travelled around 220
miles from London to Dartmouth! We had no significant
problems with the car, which was used for a number of
excursions during the fortnight, before returning us safely
back to London in early September.
The winter of 1963/4 was also quite severe although it was
not so bad as to cause the Little Austin to play up too
much. It was, however, bitterly cold and many cars had
little or no means of heating their interior. During the
spring of 1964 I was tempted into buying a much larger
car in the form of a Triumph Renown, which boasted a
heater, but it did not last too long at all as it developed
severe engine problems during a trip to Cornwall during
the early summer. Repairs would have been very expensive
so, as I had yet to dispose of the Little Austin, I decided to
give it a reprieve and abandoned the Triumph in a garage
near Exeter. In all honesty I had totally forgotten about
the Triumph and was, therefore, very surprised to receive a
letter from this garage about a year later. This contained a
cheque for 2 10s (2.50) with a covering note to say the
car had finally been sold for scrap for 5 and the proprietor
had taken 50% for his trouble but was enclosing the balance
accordingly. Clearly not all garage owners/car dealers were
rogues.
The holiday cottage near Dartmouth had been booked for
a further fortnight starting in August 1964 so the Little
Austin made its third trip westwards almost as heavilyladen as before. I say almost as my girl-friend was unable
to take her holiday in August that year so there were only

three persons on board for the overnight journey but we

still managed to fill every nook and cranny with luggage.
The drive down was a bit wild as the weather was nonetoo-good and we proceeded through heavy rain for most
of the journey but, as the Little Austin had electrically
operated windscreen wipers, it did not cause us too many
difficulties. On that occasion we drove right the way
through to the outskirts of Dartmouth before pulling over
for the remainder of the night and spent a few hours as
the wind howled about us rocking the car quite noticeably
at times. Still, we survived intact and spent all the next
two weeks enjoying our days in Devon before returning to
London without incident.
The Little Austin stayed with me until the spring of 1965
when it was sold in favour of an Austin Devon which
was a somewhat larger, more modern, vehicle and my
days of small, older cars came to an end. In the twentyfirst century it may be impossible for younger people to
appreciate the almost pioneering spirit that led individuals
like myself and my friends to venture forth all the way to
the west country in vehicles that would certainly not be
allowed on the roads these days. The fact was that packagedeal holidays to places like Spain were in their infancy and
most people still took their vacations within the UK. As
previously mentioned there were far fewer cars on the
roads so the greater percentage of holidaymakers arrived
at their destinations by coach or train. Holiday camps, as
featured in the TV series Hi-Di-Hi, were at the height of
their popularity and, although Devon and Cornwall have
always been popular areas in which to take a holiday, many
people chose the resorts of Essex, Kent and Sussex rather
than those further afield. It was, therefore, something of
a real adventure to tour to places several hundred miles
away from your home with the knowledge that something
would almost certainly crop up along the way. When I
first obtained Lulu she was twenty-three years old and
the little Austin was fifteen. With the tightening up of
regulations cars of a similar age are now far less common
on our roads and the first two vehicles owned by our young
friend mentioned during my introduction to these memoirs
were both considerably younger in years.
Since the 1960s I have owned and driven dozens of cars of
all shapes and sizes, some good, some bad, some indifferent,
but I find it impossible to recall the registration numbers of
any but a couple of the most recent. Lulu, however, carried
ETC 415 and the Little Austin JGC 788 which may go
to illustrate just how memorable that pair became. No
matter what vehicle I have driven since those days I have
always been very conscious of anything appearing a bit
odd, especially hot smells, as that invariably used to mean
mechanical trouble of some sort or the other. Despite all
their faults my wife of forty-seven years and I occasionally
laugh about some of the experiences the pair brought to us

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 131

for, you see, she is the same girl that had to hide from Lulu
to stop her sulking in back in 1962.

With glad hands I press down

And, in a click, the shutter

Robin A Dadson (1954-59)

Closes on the image,

Negatives impressed
Somewhere no light

Poetry By Fintan Calpin

Mise en Scne (a triptych)

i
So learnd I loue on a hollye eue,
hey ho holidaye,
That euer since my hart did greue
now endeth our roundelay.
I caught the sun today
In one hand and rolled it
Down the mudpath, moulded it
Like a clod of clay
Into a word for retire.
Maybe we waited for a sunSet (which burnt as if hellfire
Spilling across the horizon)
To light our cigs on. Maybe
We could not wait though.
All day my lips connected to
An outdoorsy heaven, the sky frescoed
In sky-blue - the shot breeze
Caught in leaves and throats
Trees breathed in dalliant
Ease just you me and the sun
Setting: your apocalypse,

Can reach, until

The greedy, prodding
Fingers of memory

Come distorting
This perfect fullness of shadow Us lying still in the lack of light.

iii
but what kind of light?
Went north and got
sunburnt waiting for the
evening same as every
day.
Left
for the flowers at
Hidcote still flaring still
exploding their stems
into the present. Picked up
the antique telephone
in the display room
(hoping to call you)
it wasnt plugged
in.

Me walking through it.

ii
Upward again on slow-firm pinions slanting, their separate
diverse flight,
She hers, he his, pursuing.
Twist is, when your eye opens
Its chambers empty of shadow; closing
The night draws distance closer.
The night: where our chronologies of will
And circumstance collide, two eagles over Delphi.
My clipped talons tick time.
This conceit
Tricks these buildings into bearing
Your countenance. Long after you are gone
I will sink back into the limestone.

132 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

Shift
suddenly in
perspective, these
garden rooms open
on the wide open wilds
wide open eyes. Toes
right on the edge
smile and suddenly get
why they call it a
haha.
By Fintan Calpin, a second year English Student at Wadham,
Oxford

St O-laves or St Olives?
Leslie J Watmore sent the following contribution, the last
paragraph of which some of our younger readers might do
well to observe: In a recent conversation I had with our
OOs secretary, Jane Wells, the subject of the pronunciation

of the schools name was raised because, she said, whenever

she speaks to the older OOs they pronounce it as Saint
Olives whereas in modern parlance the first syllable is a
long O as in Oh. I told her it was my firm belief that
the name was pronounced St. Olives at least as far back
as the beginning of the last century and probably for all the
centuries to when the school began in Elizabethan times.
This would have been because the school was named after
the Bermondsey parish of St. Olaves where it was founded,
whilst the girls school, built 10 years earlier, was called St.
Saviours being situated in the adjacent parish of that name.
I very much doubt if the denizens of that area gave a great
deal of thought to the patron saint St Olaf when talking
of their parish or their local school, and I wonder whether
the new pronunciation arose after the school moved to
Orpington and became more gentrified. Certainly every
master including the headmaster and all the boys in my
time at the school 1940-47 used the earlier pronunciation
as did Mr. Grainger, our chemistry master, who joined the
school in 1904.
To change the subject, just lately (I am writing in January
2015), there has been considerable concern about childhood
obesity, and it has been authoritatively stated that nearly
a third of British children born in the year 2000 were
overweight or obese by the age of 11. This has its impact
on the NHS as well, of course, as the childrens health. I
therefore thought I might add to the national debate by
writing a letter to the Times which they published on 23
December, its relevance to our school, which is not named,
being fairly obvious to OO readers. It reads as follows:Sir, I was ten years old at the start of the Second World
War and spent the next six years evacuated with my school
in Devon. In that period there was no TV, virtually no
cars, and food and sweets were severely rationed. I have
kept over the years all the annual photographs of my school
forms and, apart from one boy who apparently suffered
from a glandular disorder, every one of us looks slim and fit.

still provide funds to support two of the annual prizes, for

example.
Our primary purpose nowadays is to raise money for
charity. The annual report of our Grand Charity shows
the wide range of organisations, charities, medical research,
clubs for the disadvantaged in society, hospices and other
worthy causes that we support. If a natural disaster occurs
somewhere in the world and an international appeal
follows, you can guarantee that our Grand Charity will be
among the first to respond.
Recently those lodges based in London have bought a
wonderful piece of much-needed medical equipment for
St. Bartholomews Hospital - the Cyberknife, which
irradiates and tackles deep-lying cancers.
We have
purchased a mobile scanner for the London Hospital
which can go to the bedside of road traffic accident victims
to check them for spinal injuries - thus saving them from
slow, difficult and careful transport to X-ray departments.
We supply magic breakfasts for some schools in London
so that many children now start their school day with a
good meal.
The latest venture we have undertaken is to set out to
raise enough money, within two years, for the London
Air Ambulance Service to be able to purchase a second
helicopter.
The current helicopter has, of course, to
spend many hours a year being serviced and maintained
and, whilst this is happening, we have no cover overhead.
London freemasons are determined to help to provide this
support.
Want to know more about us? Why not write to me? I
am sure I can answer your questions. We meet formally
just four times a year at Freemasons Hall, Great Queen
Street - just off Kingsway in Central London. However,
once you join, you have the right of access to thousands of
masonic lodges world-wide.

As my maths master would have said, QED.

I look forward to hearing from you.
As neither the school nor I was in Devon in 1939/40 but
both evacuated elsewhere I used a little poetic licence in the
above to avoid getting entangled in irrelevancies.
Leslie J Watmore (1940-47)

CLUBS AND SOCIETIES

Old Olavians Lodge No. 5758
This is the masonic lodge closely associated with our
school. It was founded in the 1930s for the old boys, staff
and governors of St. Olaves and, despite the fact that we
now have much wider open membership, we still retain
strong links with, and great affection for, our school. We

Peter G Hudson OBE, Honorary Secretary of Old

Olavians Lodge, 9 Downs View Close, Pratts Bottom,
Orpington, Kent, BR6 7SU

Old Olavian Cricket Tour Report 2015

After a dry, if not stunningly hot, summer in which hardly
a game was lost to rain, the big question in the forefront of
the minds of the nation was whether the good luck would
hold for the Old Olavians tour of Devon. Sadly it did not,
and 2015 was the wettest tour in recent memory. It wasnt
wall-to-wall rain, though, and we still got three games of
cricket in and had a lot of fun the rest of the time as well.

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 133

The Sunday game went for a burton a week before tour even
started, due to the seemingly obligatory pre-tour dramatic
event.
We were meant to be returning to Budleigh
Salterton, a very nice ground on the coast that we used to
play regularly. However, the first team skipper with whom
we arranged the fixture suddenly parted company with his
club, and no-one took over responsibility for the fixtures he
had arranged. When we phoned up to confirm the game
the week before we found out that they wouldnt be able
to play us, and sadly we werent able to find a replacement
fixture in time. This meant there was a more leisurely trip
down to Devon than usual for most tourists on the Sunday,
and they could get up to whatever they fancied before
meeting at the Cavendish hotel in the evening. Laura
Pangbourne, the imminent Mrs Tom Parsons, took a group
of us out for a spot of paddle-boarding in the sea about 500
yards from our hotel. It was quite a hit, and will probably
become a regular tour activity in future for those of us who
dont mind falling in the water. A lot.
One other notable event on Sunday night was the surprising
arrival of Amanda Colloff on the stroke of midnight, as she
had said she couldnt come after spending eight months
travelling the world, since she was about to head off to
Europe to spend another couple of months travelling there.
We had been told that every single bed in the hotel had
been taken, but this didnt seem to deter her - I suppose you
get the hang of finding places to sleep as you backpack your
way through pacific islands and busy international capitals.
She kept showing up at breakfast every morning during the
week in any case, so she must have a good knack of hunting
down disused broom cupboards and finding space on top of
wardrobes and that sort of thing.
The Monday game at Sidmouth was sadly lost to rain,
which was made all the more frustrating as the sun came
out in the afternoon and positively beamed down on us as
we hacked and slashed around Starcross golf course. There
was nothing wrong with the weather on Tuesday though,
and we were all chomping at the bit to get on the field

134 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

at Sandford, particularly since we usually have really close

games there and also because they are such terribly nice
blokes.
Sandford batted first. Josh Rawlings, a new tourist from
Bromley cricket club and our one pace bowler for the week,
opened the bowling and got a wicket with his sixth ball to
get us off to a good start. He followed that with a couple
more wickets in his fifth over (all bowled - perhaps he had
heard about the catching reliability of the OOs) and he
could have actually had a few more with the number of
times he was beating the bat. Skipper Ian Giles came
on first change and dismissed four more batsmen with
his usual combination of late swing and mystery balls and
the home team were swiftly struggling at 68 for seven.
You can never afford to relax against Sandford though.
Their skipper B. Clement came in at number nine and
made several lusty, windmill-type swings in the general
direction of the ball without getting remotely near it, but
then suddenly got his eye in and started sending them all
around the park. Dave Colloff put in a good tight spell
against the onslaught but the OOs couldnt find a breakthrough as the ball landed maddeningly between fielders
and the score surged upwards. Josh returned early for his
final two overs and managed to dismiss T. Williams for
27, who had been holding the other end up. Lance Giles
came on for a second spell and got carted around a fair
bit just as before but managed to bowl Clement in his last
over for a thoroughly cavalier 83. Pete White took the
last wicket courtesy of Tom Parsons with his second catch
of the day, and Sandford were left on 196 after 37 overs,
which seemed a fair target.
Not content with his batting heroics, Clement opened the
bowling too. He annoyingly bowled Parsons in his second
over and followed that with a couple of maidens, but the
Olavians managed to keep him out for the rest of his tight
spell of eight overs for 16 runs. When he wasnt batting
or bowling Clement liked catching too, and caught Sanjay
Ranasinghe before he could trouble the scorers more than
mildly in the tenth over. Other accurate bowlers came on,
and the OOs were finding them hard to get away, losing
wickets regularly and steadily getting behind the clock
in run-rate. The exception to this was Sagren NayanahRajh, who opened the batting and mixed resolute defence
with thunderous blows, particularly favouring the booming
straight aerial drive. He didnt seem so keen on singles,
but who can blame him? He waged a lone war against
the bowlers (suffering his traditional hamstring complaint
manfully during the process) until he was finally caught
on the boundary for 89 quality runs. This left the tourists
on 143 for seven off 33 overs. 54 more runs required from
seven overs. This sadly proved too much of an ask of the
remaining batsmen, and the OOs subsided to 147 for nine
in 35 overs. Lawrence Roots had had to retire from the

game during fielding earlier due to a dizzy spell related to

a concussion he had received a couple of weeks earlier, and
unfortunately wasnt able to bat. Who knows whether this
would have made a difference to the result, but his batting
has come on tremendously in recent years and his elegant
drives would certainly have proved very useful.
Wednesday was another fine day, and after a civilised yet
mercilessly competitive bout of lawn bowls we all amassed
at Torquays pleasant ground. The home skipper Galhenage
confidently said hed like to bat first in a 40-over game,
and his OO opposite number Lance Giles acquiesced,
a decision he would come to rather regret. Torquay
mentioned that they had had a lot of trouble raising a side,
and had dragged players in from several nearby clubs to
make up numbers. What they didnt mention at the start of
the game was that all these players were first team batsmen
very eager for a bit of midweek practice. Josh and Lance
opened the bowling, and after nine overs the score was 38
for none and the batsmen had played and missed numerous
times, particularly against Josh who beat the bat about
three times an over. From then on it was pretty much
carnage. Galhenage got fifty, his opening partner retired
on 100, and there were two other fifties from the middle
order. At least five balls were lost over the short boundary
and over the road. Reduced to bowling with rough net
balls, none of the bowlers came out with much credit. The
only highlights were really Craig Giles first bowl back on
tour after an eight-year absence and Chris Evans, who was
appearing for the first time on tour after muttering about it
for at least twenty years, taking a wicket with his first ball.
Torquay finished on 336 off their quota of overs, which was
a record score against the OOs in Devon.
Faced with such a monumental task, the only approach for
the tourists was to go out and enjoy it and let the result take
care of itself. Tom Parsons opened up in his usual carefree
manner and reached ten after two balls, after which he
moved like a force of nature to 29 before getting caught
out. Sanjay was scheduled to throw the bat briefly before
running for a train at 6.30pm that he needed to get back
to London. The problem was he started batting rather
well, and the more he found the middle of the bat the less
inclined he seemed to be to surrender his wicket. 6.30pm
came and went before Sanjay was caught out for an excellent
30, and he skipped off to the train station with a whistle on
his lips (where he managed to catch a later train and get
back to London around midnight, for those who like their
stories to have all the loose ends tied up). Chris Swadkin
looked in fine form for his 21 before bizarrely managing
to get out by stepping on his own wicket. Dave Colloff
came in fresh from an 80 at the weekend and played the
best innings before unluckily being run out from a direct
hit on 40. Josh played several mighty shots and remained
unconquered on 31 as the OOs finished on 218 for seven

from their forty overs, which in any normal game would

have been a decent enough score.
It takes more than a first innings hammering to dent the
good cheer of an Olavian touring party, and everyone
quickly turned their thoughts to Terry Smiths Tour Quiz
back at the Cavendish. A couple of contentious questions,
a walk-out and a couple of fist fights was the perfect way
to take everyones minds off the Torquay game, and a good
time was had by all.
South Devon phoned up the next day apologising for
having to call the game off due to a waterlogged ground,
which wasnt too surprising given the overnight rain. It
carried on drizzling for most of the day. The OOs thought
that if youre going to get wet you might as well do it
properly, and adjourned to the hotel swimming pool for
stupid games involving inflatable balls. Everyone had such
a good time that that they carried on for hours, moving
indoors after a bit to do silly things in the heated but smaller
indoor pool, before finishing crammed into the sauna. The
tour dinner in the evening was a more relaxed affair than
normal, since we didnt have to hurry back from a cricket
game. Paul Chapman navigated us through it with his
customary avuncular wit, and John Brown delivered a very
entertaining extended speech about how tour had changed
through the (many!) years of his experience. JB claimed
our predecessors went to bed a lot earlier than the current
tour incumbents, roused early every morning for a dip in
the sea, and finished each day off with a knickerbocker
glory. Im not sure which one is least likely these days.
Friday dawned monolithically grey, and steady rainfall in
the morning left everyone pessimistic, if not dismissive,
of any chance of a game. Kenn were very keen for the
game to be played though, especially since it would be
the first time we had played them since Pete Murfin sadly
passed away last winter. So we had lunch in the Combe
Cellars pub on the edge of the River Teign and watched
the rain come down outside, and then we drove off to Kenn

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 135

where we huddled on the outfield as the drizzle continued.

Eventually it stopped and we thought we would try to get
a 25-over game in. The ground was too slippy for bowlers
to run up more than a couple of yards, but conditions
were the same for both sides so we thought wed give it a
bash anyway. Josh Rawlings (36) opened the batting for
the first time in his career, and he and Pete White (36)
began smiting the ball around very nicely. They fell in
quick succession, however, leaving us on 87 for 2 after ten
overs. Swaddy came in and hit three sixes in a quickfire 39
before he was stumped, and John Brown and Steve Parsons
saw us through to 159 for four from our 25 overs, having
relinquished their normal scoring and umpiring roles.

Tues 11th August v Sandford (40 0vers)

LOST by 44 runs

Ian Giles (2 for seven) opened the bowling and proved just
as difficult as normal for the batsmen to get away. Chris
Evans and Lance Giles got a wicket each too, and although
Jimmy Gosling played well for 33, once he was out the
hope for the home side was gone, as they were getting too
far behind the run-rate. Stephen Parsons bowled three
lovely overs at the end for figures of 2 for eleven, and Kenn
finished on 77. The amount of slippy mud had made it an
unusual game, but it was very good of Kenn to persevere
with playing it and all the tourists appreciated their efforts
- it was far more satisfying to drive back to London after
a game than after another wash-out. It was also a much
better way to remember Pete Murfin than a rained-off
match, and a few heart-felt words were said about him
before the start of play.

Old Olavians 218 for 9 in 40 overs (D Colloff 40, J

Rawlings 31, S Ranasinghe 30, T Parsons 29)

It had been unfortunate the weather had decided to turn

foul just at the wrong moment for tour, but we were able
to get just enough cricket in so that all the players took
the field at some point and made a useful contribution.
Most grateful thanks must be awarded to everyone who
umpired and scored during the week, particularly Stephen
Parsons and John Brown who performed those duties fulltime at Sandford and Torquay. Thanks also to Sanjay who
handled the finances until he ran off for his train on the
Wednesday. Finally, congratulations to everyone in the
tour party for keeping their spirits up when faced with
yet another wet morning, and for completeness those that
havent been mentioned so far are: Chris Ruddle, Rashalen
and Sharon Najayanah-Rajh, Andy Bayliss, Jackie Childe,
Janet Colloff, Pennie Giles, Linda Michael, Margaret
Roots, Jo Swadkin, Peter Whites girlfriend Becky and
John Browns partner Ann.
RESULTS:
Sun 9th August v Budleigh Salterton
Match Cancelled
Mon 10th August v Sidmouth
Match Abandoned

136 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

Sandford 196 in 37 overs ( J Rawlings 4 for 21, I Giles 4

for 41)
Old Olavians 153 in 35 overs (S Nayanah-Rajh 89, D
Colloff 26)
Wed 12th August v Torquay (40 overs)
LOST by 118 runs
Torquay 336 for 5 in 40 overs

Thurs 13th August v South Devon

Match Abandoned
Fri 14th August v Kenn (25 overs)
WON by 82 runs
Old Olavians 159 for 4 in 25 overs (C Swadkin 39, J
Rawlings 36, P White 35)
Kenn 77 in 17 overs
Lance Giles (1988-1995)

Eton Fives Club

ANOUNCEMENT: Planning permission has been granted
for the building of four additional Eton Fives courts at
St.Olaves. For all information about this exciting project
and how to donate, please look at: www.olavianfives.com
The first news that has to be reported is the very sad news
of the sudden death of Jim Biggs, who was a father-figure
in many ways to our club. Jim was at the top of the sport in
his hey-day, having won the Mens Nationals several times
in the 1960s/70s and having been a leading player in our
1970 Barber Cup winning team. Despite living in the
West Country, and having retired from playing many years
ago, Jim still visited us at key tournaments and events and
kept in touch with the clubs progress. Jim was a very proud
Olavian and a great all-round sportsman at school. He
played in both the last ever official school football match
for St.Olaves and then the first ever official school Rugby
match! Jim was thrilled by the Fives Clubs successes and
enormous growth. Those of us that were lucky enough to
know Jim will miss him very much. Jim would have very
much approved of all else that we have to report for the
2014-2015 season. (There are more tributes to Jim in the
In Memoriam section).

The Saturday morning club sessions grew in popularity and

there were three or four courts full most weeks, especially
over the summer term. It was great to see so many players
return to the club whilst at university or having left university
in recent years. Brian Wang, Sudhir Balagi and Tony
Barker all made important contributions to The Cambridge
University Fives teams, with Tony triumphing in all matches
at first pair and winning the University Championships.

in his second year at university in London, has joined

the coaching team at Alleyns school. It is fantastic to
see so many Old Olavians playing such an important
role in the development of this sport both nationally
and internationally! When additional courts are built
at St.Olaves, these will be used to enable more girls and
boys from other schools in the area to play and to represent
either their own school or a Bromley Borough team.

We managed to win the First Division (and, with it, the

coveted Douglas Keeble Cup). Scraping through by 1.5
points, the last three matches were crucial - especially our
2-1 win over the Old Berkhamstedians who were in pole
position until that time. The most satisfying statistic is
that fifteen different players represented the club in this
successful campaign, including three superb players from
the school! The joint School/Old Olavian Second Division
team finished third, whilst the third Division Team won
their title also!!

Anyone reading this report who would like to play fives

again, or for the first time, or would just like to come and
see a match being played amongst Olavians, do please get
in touch. Just contact Howard Wiseman on: hwiseman@
aol.com, or 0779 222 6036.

The main target every year as a team is the all-club knockout

-The Barber Cup. We triumphed again, making this the
clubs sixteenth title in this event, and the twelfth in a
row. The winning finalists were James Toop & Matthew
Wiseman, Sebastian Cooley & Peter White, and Howard
Wiseman & Tom Gallagher. Aged only sixteen, Tom made
history by becoming the youngest player, and first schoolboy,
to have ever been in a winning Barber Cup Team.
The two tournaments that specifically feature pairings of
past and present pupils were both won by the Olavians. The
Old Olavian ladies reunited to compete in the Richard Black
Cup. Old Olavians dominated the major Tournament scene
with Seb Cooley, Matt Wiseman and James Toop appearing
in almost every major final. Seb remains undefeated in
five years with his Old Harrovian partner; he won all major
events including the Mens nationals, and also the Mixed
nationals with his Old Olavian sister, Charlotta! Charlotta
won the Ladies Nationals as well.
Luke Stradwick and Peter White enjoyed another very
committed and successful year competing in The England
Fives/International Wall Ball Team, which included good
performances in the World Championships in Calgary,
Canada.
Old Olavians Matthew Wiseman, David Mew and Howard
Wiseman continue to serve many schools as the visiting
Fives Professionals, whilst Matt has also been appointed
as the the Fives Master-in-charge at Westminster School
and the lead coach for the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in
Switzerland. Seb Cooley is the master-in-charge of Fives
at Shrewsbury School, and Charlotta Cooley has just joined
the staff at Ipswich school were she will be heavily involved
with the busy Fives programme there. Chris Self, whilst

If you are keen to donate towards our court fund, then

please do look at www.olavianfives.com or contact Howard.
Donations of any size would be greatly appreciated.

IN MEMORIAM
Michael John Kendrick BALAAM (1955-63) died
in the autumn of 2013. We were sent this sad news by
his friend Dr Stuart Handley (1956-64), and later we
received the following tribute: On Sunday, May 17th 2015,
Suffolk Singers a choir from Otley, near Ipswich, sang in
the Queens Chapel of the Savoy in memory of Michael
Balaam, a former chorister of the chapel and member of
Suffolk Singers, who died in October 2013. Michael had
left the choir a small legacy to do something different,
special and this is what the choir had chosen to do.
Michael was a former chairman and dedicated member of
Suffolk Singers in which he had sung for many years.
The diagnosis of a grade 4 brain tumour in March 2011
had come with a months, not years prognosis. At no point
during the succeeding two and a half years did Michael
shrink his life to accommodate the cancer. Rather, he
expanded it, made it denser, more positive and fruitful.
Music, singing and the wonderfully supportive Suffolk
Singers, of whom he was so proud, did much to enrich
these
precious
years.

Form 1c
Michael was born in London on the 7th July 1944, a year
before the end of WW2. An only child, he lived with
his parents in Honor Oak Park and joined St Olaves in
September 1955 where he started in Form 1c with George
Collins.
In the form photograph, Michael is in the second row, fourth
from the right. He was a chorister in the Savoy Chapel
under the Master of the Music, William Cole, himself

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 137

a former pupil of St Olaves. After O-levels he was in

Transitus III and the Modern VI taking English, History,
Geography and, latterly, Music as his main subjects. He
played rugby for the 2nd XV and was involved with many
school activities outside the classroom.

just the choir for him. A young friend in his village dubbed
him The man who knows everything and he did indeed
have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all sorts of subjects.
When asked, How did you know that? he would say with
a laugh A good school.

In July 1962, he was a member of the school party that

went to Rome and Sorrento with, as minders, George
Collins, Basil and Mrs Taylor and another couple, friends
of the Taylors. The photograph shows Michael sitting
next to Basil Taylor on a ferry taking the party to the
island of Capri. Michael was awarded the Susan Owen
medal for speech and drama. This may be the prize he is
collecting at the 1962 prize giving in the film of the school
St Olaves on Horsley Down at 21m 30 s. Described as
steady, likeable and conscientious, in his final year, he was
joint School Captain with Christopher Cuttance.

Michael Balaam is survived by his wife, Jess.

After completing a teacher-training course, Michael

spent three years teaching in Mpanza in Zambia, another
experience that was to have a lifelong influence on his
thinking on teaching and aid. On his return, he was
delighted to visit his old school and even more pleased to
meet a past pupil who was now a teacher at the school. He
worked in schools in Walthamstow before moving with his
parents to Suffolk, his fathers birthplace. He retired from
Stoke High School in Ipswich.
St Olaves had a major influence on Michaels life and he
often spoke very warmly about his school years. He had a
choice of three schools and visited them all with his parents.
He thought St Olaves was by far the most comfortable,
exciting, and he always blessed the day he decided that
was the place for him.
Catchphrases from school days became part of family
shared vocabulary. The most quoted was Well spotted
Balaam! from a bird-watching expedition in Dulwich Park
when the young Michael had seen something unusual.
The school nurtured his life-long love of music, and choral
singing in particular, and in the Suffolk Singers he found

138 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

James ( Jim) W BIGGS (1944-52) died in July 2015 as

the result of a car accident. Jim was the first truly great
Fives players produced by the school, and there have been
many tributes to his skill and achievements in that sport
over a long career. The first of these comes from his
contemporary, Peter Batten, who played Fives with Jim at
school: In my last year at St Olaves I was Jims partner in
the first pair of the Eton Fives team. I think he chose me
because I was good at the back of the court, able to drive
the ball with both hands. He was already one of the best
Eton Fives players around.
During that season we played many enjoyable matches
against other schools and against senior teams such as the
Old Citizens, Old Chigwellians and, of course, the Old
Olavians. Thanks to Jims outstanding play we enjoyed
a great deal of success. We were not so successful in the
Public Schools event. Early on we played the eventual
winners. Although we gave them a very tough match, in
the end we lost.
During our matches the opponents quickly realised that
I was not as strong a player as Jim, and adjusted their play
accordingly. Although I was often under pressure, Jim
never once shouted at me or criticised my play. He was
full of enthusiasm and encouragement. I remember him
with great affection.
Dick Spooner (1953-1960), for some time captain of the

OOEFC, writes: At Jimmys funeral, Richard Black who

is Chairman of the Eton Fives Association described him
as follows: Jimmy was not just a good Eton Fives player, he
was a true champion, one of the best players in the history
of the game. He was national Champion four times and
appeared in many other finals. He has a place amongst the
all-time greats of the game. I would fully concur with this
pronouncement but I might have been accused of being
biased if I had been the first to say it.
I first met Jimmy in 1960 when I joined the OOs Fives
Club. He had already won the Kinnaird Cup, the major
pairs competition, in 1957 with Philip Curtis (Old
Carthusian) and had lost in three other finals with the
same partner. He went on to win the Kinnaird Cup three
more times with Jimmy Wallis in the years 1961, 1962 and
1964. He appeared in twelve finals spanning twenty-one
years. Only one other player in the history of the game has
a longer span of Final appearances.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the OOs became one of
the strongest clubs in the country. Although the OOs
had some good players at that time, none was in the same
class as Jimmy whose presence made the sum of the parts
that much greater. Indeed, the OOs won the main club
competition (the Barber Cup) in 1971 and lost in the
1973 and 1974 Finals. As Gordon Stringer, Eton Fives
Association, (EFA) remarked in the obituary he did for the
EFA In his youth he ( Jimmy) was so quick that he could
carry almost any partner.
Jimmy had amazing strength and generated very powerful
shots for somebody who would be described as a little
short on stature. He always won the strength-pulling
test at the arcade on the Sunday morning of the Lancing/
Charterhouse tour.
Jimmy will always be remembered for laying the
foundations and many of the building blocks which have
led to the OO Fives Club being one of the most successful
Fives clubs over the last fifty years.

Besides his extraordinary skill as an Eton Fives player,

Jim was a more than useful cricketer. He was a regular
player for the Old Olavians during the sixties, and he
enjoyed touring south Devon with that club. He played
as a middle-order batsman, but his greatest asset was his
fielding he took some outstanding catches at slip where
the reactions which served him so well at fives helped him
to snaffle the most unlikely of chances.
He was not the most prolific of run-scorers, but there was
great joy when he reached his fifty against Croydon Gas in
1966. Just occasionally he would be allowed a bowl and on
more than one occasion he took pleasure from bowling an
over with three balls delivered with his right arm and three
with his left.
Away from the courts and playing fields, Jim was a
successful dentist who treated me (OO editor) when I had
some teeth knocked out by a cricket ball. He had three
children with his first wife, Marion - Jackie, Christopher
and Debbie.
(There is a further tribute to Jim in the OO Eton Fives
Club report earlier in this section of the magazine)
Albert (Bert) W CASEY (1945-48): it is with more than
usual sadness that I (OO editor) have to report the death of
Bert Casey in April 2015. He was an enthusiastic Olavian
with whom I played many happy games of cricket during
the late fifties and sixties. In the early sixties, before he had
bought himself a car, I used to collect him regularly from
the forecourt at Waterloo station before driving together
to wherever the Olavian fixture had been arranged that
Saturday afternoon. I remember with particular fondness
opening the batting with him at Sidmouth on my first OO
tour of South Devon in 1958, when we managed to put
on sixty runs between us. He was a correct and stylish
right-hand bat who always played the game in the right
spirit, and who always played with the teams interests to
the fore. In addition he was a steady medium-pace bowler
who rarely bowled a poor ball.
Bert had a successful career working with the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He was utterly reliable
in all that he did, a true gentleman, one who will most
certainly be missed.
Edward (Ted) Charles COLEMAN (1941-44) died in
February 2015. His daughter, Catherine, sent this sad
news.

Fives Team 1952

The Reverend Canon John Wilfred EVERETT (194856) died on 5th April 2014. His wife, Alexandra, who lives
in Willsborough, near Ashford, in Kent, sent this news in
January 2015.

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 139

Roy George GREGORY (1946 - 1953): This article

is based on Roys obituary written by his sister Eve and
printed in The Guardian on 2nd September 2015. Roy
Gregory, who has died at the age of 80 was Professor
of Politics at Reading University and co-founder of its
Centre for Ombudsman Studies. He was born in 1935 in
Plaistow in East London to George and Elsie Gregory, and
poverty was very much part of Roys early life. The War
started when Roy was four years old and his family were
determined to keep him in London rather than send him
off as an evacuee.

Nigel D JACKS (1955-62) died unexpectedly early in the

summer of 2015. I am grateful to Stuart Handley (195664) for bringing this sad news to our attention. Stuart tells
us that Nigel was Head Boy in 1961/62 and that he was
captain of the Athletics team in that year. His younger
brother, Digby (1956-63), who died some years ago, also
appears in the photograph (front row, 2nd from right). In
addition Nigel appears several times in the film, St Olaves
on Horsley Down.

As a result his education was almost non-existent and

yet he managed to win a place at St Olaves, where he
was launched into a new world of Latin and Greek and
the art of scholarly writing, which he practised all his
life. He gained an exhibition to Oxford where he studied
Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Brasenose College
and then focused on the history of the miners and British
politics for his doctorate at Nuffield.
In 1964 Roy was appointed lecturer in the Politics
Department at Reading University and in 1976 he
became Professor of Politics there, a post he held until his
retirement in 2000. He never forgot his roots, and his time
at Oxford in the 1950s, when very few students were from
state schools and even fewer from the East End, led to a
passionate interest in social justice. This thread is woven
throughout his four books on the history of the miners and
the Labour Party, and a further manuscript which sadly
remains unfinished.
In the 1960s Roy was a Labour Councillor in Reading and
was one of the last Aldermen in Britain and, until he died,
he remained a member of The Labour Party. Together with
other colleagues he set up The Centre for Ombudsman
Studies, which continues to train future Ombudsmen
throughout the world.
His career was long and successful; not only was he
an intellectual but also a talented footballer, strongly
preferring that game to rugby (much to Dr. Carringtons
displeasure), and he played for Oxford University. His real
love was music, however: he played the piano and was an
enthusiastic member of the Chiswick Choir.
In his latter years his health did not treat him kindly and in
2003 Roy was struck by a sudden, serious and undiagnosed
mental illness that would rack his mind and body for the
next twelve years.
He is survived by a daughter Annie, her mother Pasha and
his sister Eve.

140 Old Olavian Olavian 2015

The Athletics Team 1962

The following tribute appeared in the local newspaper, the
Keynsham Voice in June 2015: Nigel Jacks, the chairman
of the Friends of Manor Road Community Woodland has
died suddenly and unexpectedly. Born in Charlton, southeast London, he attended Imperial and Kingston colleges
in London before qualifying as an electrical engineer. He
worked first with the Central Electricity Generating Board
and latterly National Grid when he and his family moved
to Keynsham in 1978.
Mr Jacks retired in 2000 and over the past fifteen years
devoted a considerable amount of his time and energy to
the development, management and maintenance of Manor
Road Community Woodland, the local nature reserve
between Keynsham and Saltford.
He led monthly task groups, fundraising, and chaired
liaison meetings with the local authority and Keynsham
Town Council. In 2006 he was awarded the Keynsham
Good Citizen Award for his contribution to the community.
Mr Jacks was also on the committee of Keynshams Durley
Park Association, an organisation for retired employees of
National Grid, and he arranged regular guided walks in
the local countryside. His hobbies included mountain
walking, photography, astronomy and car mechanics.
Nigel leaves Margaret, his wife of forty-seven years,
daughters Sally and Helen, and grandchildren Toby, Max,
Noah and Sylvie.

Stanley John RICKARD (1941-45) died in September

2015: We were told this sad news by his daughter, Caroline
Rayner.
Patrick Michael SCUTT (1945-52) died in November
2012. His wife, Hazel, has written the following tribute:
Pat was born in 1934 in Slindon, West Sussex and moved
with his family to London shortly afterwards. During
the war he was evacuated with his older sister and brother,
Peter, who was also an Olavian.
Pat and his wife Hazel met at Emmanuel Church in
Streatham in 1950 when they were both in their mid-teens.
They both enjoyed sports of all kinds, rugby and cricket
for Pat, hockey and netball for Hazel.
Both were keen
swimmers and cyclists and they were at one stage the mixed
doubles champions at their local tennis club. They married
in 1956 and had five children.
After leaving StOGS in 1952, Pat spent two years in the
army doing his national service which was compulsory
in those days. Most of his time was spent with the
Intelligence Corps in Germany.
After leaving the army in 1954 he went to work for the
British Rail Property Board as a trainee surveyor whilst
studying for his BSc degree in the evenings. He eventually
became Director of Development and was responsible
for all the land owned by British Rail throughout the
country which was a quite considerable amount. His work
involved the redevelopment of much station property. This
included building shops, restaurants, offices, etc above and
around existing London stations such as Victoria, London
Bridge and Liverpool Street. He and other members of
the Property Board were invited to visit Australia, America
and Japan to advise on aspects of station development.
Pat continued to play for Streatham and Croydon Rugby
Club into his fifties, and he was still swimming forty
lengths twice a week at Trinity School in Croydon until his
sudden and unexpected death in 2012.
In addition Pat was a very active member of his local
church, acting over many years as a churchwarden, then
as assistant warden, and he was an important member of
the Parochial Church Council. He and his wife were
Friends of Southwark Cathedral and Pat was a Friend of
Churches in the City of London. In addition he kept
what is described as an immaculate garden with a superb
lawn and weed-free flower-beds. In the eulogy given at
his funeral Pat was summed up as a hard-working, reliable
perfectionist, quite a private and modest man, a loving
husband, father and grandfather.

William J WHITE (1928-32) died on 26th November

2014. We were told this sad news by Richard White
(1970-77).

THE OLD OLAVIANS

HONORARY OFFICERS 2015
PRESIDENT
Aydin na, Headmaster
The Headmasters House, St Olaves Grammar School,
Goddington Lane, Orpington, Kent BR6 9SH
Tel: 01689 820101
CHAIRMAN
Chris Harris,
[email protected]
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Graham Milne
Paul Ouseley
Bill Prouse
Rajiv Purwar
EDITOR OF THE OLD OLAVIAN
John Brown, 60 The Lawns, Rolleston-on-Dove,
Staffordshire, DE13 9DB
Tel: 01283 813976 e-mail: [email protected]
SECRETARIES OF AFFILIATED CLUBS AND
SOCIETIES
CRICKET CLUB
Lance Giles, c/o 44 Harwood Avenue, Bromley, Kent,
BR1 3DU
Tel: 07891 725488 e-mail: [email protected]
FIVES CLUB
Howard Wiseman, 7 Genoa Road, Anerley SE20 8ES
Tel: 020 8778 0752
OLD OLAVIANS LODGE (No. 5758)
Peter G Hudson OBE
9 Downs View Close, Pratts Bottom
Orpington, Kent, BR6 7SU
Tel: 01689 858583 e-mail: [email protected]
RUGBY CLUB
Phil Grayson,
57, Byrne Road, Balham, London SW12 7JB
Tel: 07971 878750
HOLYOAK ROOM
St Olaves School, Goddington Lane, Orpington, Kent,
BR6 9SH
OLD OLAVIANS ADMINISTRATOR
Jane Wells
[email protected]

Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 141

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Olavian 2015 Old Olavian 143