Forty five boys from both Junior and Senior Schools, together with eight staff, left KCS bound for Tuscany on Thursday 3rd July, the day after the end of the school year. This was a joint tour of the Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra with Mass in the Duomo in Florence and four concerts on the performing agenda.
Staying in two Tuscan spa towns, the tour party managed to fit in sightseeing in Florence, Siena, San Gimignano and Lucca, a trip up the Leaning Tower of Pisa and a visit to a water park on their well-earned day off. Audiences were large and appreciative and insisted on encores at every concert. The Chamber Choir had an experience of a lifetime as they sang in Florence’s Duomo which has one of the largest acoustics anywhere in Europe. Each church was unique in its size and acoustic but the standard of performance was consistently high. The boys have returned buzzing over their musical and cultural experiences. It was a wonderful way of celebrating the achievements of these two high profile ensembles at KCS. Plans will be underway in the not too distant future for the next music tour.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Results 2008
This year’s IB results are outstanding. With an average points total of 39.45 (compared to 37.66 last year), King’s College School positions itself as one of the world’s most successful IB schools. The range of subjects studied, the academic curiosity demanded by the IB diploma, and the high scores achieved by this year’s King’s boys all means that they will move on to the strongest universities, well prepared for higher education and the range of opportunities beyond university.
Internationally, only about 70 pupils gain the “perfect” IB score of 45 points; at King’s, we have had a school record of eight boys achieving 45 this year. I am delighted for the boys and their teachers – they have all worked hard to gain some of the best IB scores in the world.
Dear Parents I start my letter to you with some school administration information. We have recently completed a major review concerning the way we manage and use the information we record about your son. After extensive research and testing, the School has installed a new central Management Information System to replace the various computerised and manual systems used previously. We are confident that this will lead to many administrative improvements, including some simplification in the ways we communicate with you, whether by telephone, letter, email, text or online.
Like pictures, numbers tell stories, too. King’s may be one of the most academically successful schools in the UK, but it is much more than this, and nothing shows us this as clearly as the huge number of boys involved in so many different sports and activities.
Squash match against Grey High School - the return leg!
In the last week of the summer term, 16 squash players from KCS played host to Grey High School from Port Elizabeth for two nights and took them on in an out-of-season squash fixture. Their extensive 16 day tour of the UK took them as far as Glamorgan, Truro, Cheltenham and Wimbledon was their last stop. As well as the squash they had a chance to visit Wimbledon tennis where they managed to meet Lleyton Hewitt and some of them got onto centre court to see the Murray – Gasquet match.
The Senior Tennis team enjoyed a superb tournament at the National Tennis championships held at Eton College at the end of June. In our first match we were drawn to play Eton who had already beaten us in two very close and extremely tense matches this season. This match, with so much at stake, was no different.
Three-time Grand Slam Champion, Maria Sharapova, travelled to the King’s Club to teach the science of sweat and help the UK launch of Gatorade, the world’s most researched sports drink.
During her visit Maria signed a Nike Tennis shirt and a Prince Tennis racket as souvenirs for the School’s tennis pavilion.
OKC Fencing
Commemoration and Governors’ Day on 21st June 2008 saw the annual fencing match against the School. The Old Boys fielded a strong Epee team of Tom Cadman (1998), Alp Orge (1995), Nick Perry (2002) and Luka Lukic (2006) who beat the School team by 8 bouts to 4 while Guy Woodward (2005) and Howard Rapley (1990) represented the Old Boys in a Sabre friendly. Howard Rapley’s participation was appreciated as he had flown over from Ireland to attend (and complain how Sabre technique had changed over the years!).
Next year’s match against the School will be on Saturday 20th June 2009. Old Boy fencers are encouraged to reserve this date in their calendars. The School Fencing Club continues to meet on Saturday mornings in the Sports Hall during term time and Old Boys are always welcome.
David Tilles
OKC Fencing Club Secretary
Tennis: OKC vs The School
The Old Boys played the School on Commemoration and Governors’ Day on 21 June 2008.
The result was 6-0 for the Old Boys, although the matches were all extremely competitive, very close and impressive to watch:
Blake Hutchins beat Joe Salisbury (rising star!) 6-3, 6-3
Criag Walker beat Josh Tingle (school captain) 7-6, 6-4
Andrew Blake beat Will Tingle 6-7, 6-3, 10-8
Rory Pullinger beat Jack O’Shea 6-4, 6-4
Doubles: Blake and Craig beat Josh and Joe 6-3, 6-3; Andrew and Rory beat Will and Jack 6-2, 6-4
Certainly the last 3 singles matches could have gone either way and the standard of tennis being played was extremely high. In the end, the cool and wise old heads knew how to finish the matches off in style!
