2003-04
Christ's Hospital GCSE Results 2004
The results gained by Christ's Hospital's pupils in this year's GCSE results were the best ever with 98.8% pass rate at A* - C grades and 70% achieved A* and A grades. There are also 18 pupils with all A* and A grades. Two of our pupils, Beth O'Connell from Billingshurst and Jo Poon from Horsham, both passed 11 GCSEs A* grade. In addition, Beth gained the top grade in Additional Maths. Jo Poon was also amongst the group of candidates who scored one of the top five marks in German Specification A this summer (out of 63,512 AQA board candidates) and in French (163,527 candidates).
Steven Connors, Deputy Head, said “These are record breaking GCSE results for the second year in succession. This is a tremendous achievement and a just reward for the hard work of a talented and energetic group of pupils who have been ably supported by an equally talented and dedicated group of teachers”.
Christ's Hospital near Horsham, is an 11-18 boarding school and charitable foundation for children from all backgrounds.
A-Level Examination Results 2004
The pupils at Christ's Hospital have worked hard and produced a good set of A Level results this year with an overall pass rate of 99.4%. Mary Ireland, Deputy Head said “We are delighted with this year's results, 88% gained at grades A-C, with thirteen pupils winning places at Oxford and Cambridge . Two of Christ's Hospital pupils,Richard Lebon and Peter Rennie were also awarded prizes for coming in the top five pupils nationally for Archaeology.
Gene Simmons to Teach in Rock School
Channel 4 has commissioned RDF Media to make Rock School, a 6 x 30 minute entertainment series. Gene Simmons, fire breathing 'Demon' frontman from KISS, will tutor a group of school children aged 13-14 in the ways of rock. They will be given lessons in the history of rock, they'll be taught how to write songs and learn the art of performance. Over the course of their lessons the children will form their own rock band and, as well as writing, recording and performing music, they will learn about everything from stage design and lighting to styling and managing the group. And they'll need to learn fast because at the end of the 4 weeks the band will play on the bill of a real rock show.
"The juxtaposition of rock legend Gene and his class should be educating, illuminating and amusing. Gene will definitely teach his class about rock and roll and who knows maybe they will teach him a thing or two as well." Andrew Newman, Head of Entertainment, Channel 4. "Christ's Hospital is happy to welcome Gene Simmons to lead the Rock School project. We expect to learn a lot from this adventure in which all parties will experience a taste of another world. The musical and performance talents which Gene will share with his pupils at Christ's Hospital give them a remarkable opportunity to expand and develop their existing experience." Dr Peter Southern, Head Master, Christ's Hospital School.
Rock School will go out on Channel 4 from mid 2005 and is Executive Produced by RDF Media's Creative Director Grant Mansfield. The Series Producer is Jo Crawley and Series Director Ros Ponder.
St Matthew's Day
350 pupils and staff from Christ's Hospital brought City traffic to a halt on Friday, 24 September as they marched through the streets on their way to The Church of St Andrew, Holborn and then onto the Guildhall where they were lunch guests of the Lord Mayor, Vic President of the School.
Led by the School's Band, the pupils paraded from Watergate to The Church of St Andrew where they attended a service, along with Governors and Almoners (Trustees) of the School, to mark St Matthew's Day which traditionally was the day on which the Governors of Christ's Hospital were elected. The Reverend Canon John Hall, General Secretary Church of England Board of Education and National Society for Promoting Religious Education preached the Sermon. Afterwards, the Parade continued onto Guildhall, passing the site of the original school in Newgate Street where the School saluted the commemorative plaque. At Guildhall,all the pupils received largesse, a monetary gift from the Corporation of London, which was presented by the Lord and Lady Mayoress.
A spokesperson from the School said "This annual tradition is an enjoyable way to remind the pupils of our history and ethos and how much we value the support received from the City. The streets were lined with parents, Old Blues (former pupils) and curious members of public who came out of shops and offices to watch the Parade. The City Police did a marvellous job holding up the traffic for us".
The School, now in Horsham, West Sussex, was originally situated in Newgate Street in 1552 as a Charitable Foundation using money raised by the City to educate poor children; it continues to use its funds today to assist children, whatever their social or economic background.
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Band Parade In Horsham Town Centre : 1 May 2004
For the third year in succession, residents of and visitors to Horsham Town Centre will be treated to several famous marches from the Christ's Hospital Band to launch, for the third year in succession, 'Horsham in Bloom' . The musicians will form up at 1pm and finish at about 1.25 in the Carfax by the Bandstand.
The Band's next public appointment is at Lord's Cricket Ground on 21 May when they play during the interval of the England v New Zealand match.
Christ's Hospital Spearheads National Community Action Strategy
A National Conference to launch the National Strategy for Community Action in Schools throughout Romania was held in Bucharest at the Parliament Palace on 7th April 2004. Christ's Hospital's Director of Community Action, Muir John Potter, who is also Adviser to the Romanian Government for Community Action, was asked to organise this under the auspices of the Ministry of Education.
The National Strategy evolved from 12 years (1992-2004) of community action project work involving pupils and staff from Christ's Hospital and Romania High School students, as well as a pilot study that Baroness Nicholson MEP asked Muir John Potter, to undertake last year. The Strategy will mean that Community Action will be introduced into the curriculum of every High School in Romania and so link these with Placement Centres, Homes etc for children with difficulties and with other groups of people in need in the community.
Baroness Nicholson, First Vice Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, said “ The National Strategy for Community Action is a very exciting and important initiative by the Romanian Government and I am pleased that the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth is taking the lead and working in conjunction with other Ministries in its development and implementation”.
The Secretary of State for Education said “The implementation of this strategy will be a turning point for Romania's education and will change the face of educational provision”.
Christ's Hospital, an 11-18 boarding school and charitable foundation,organises an extensive community action programme, which benefits its own local community of Horsham in Sussex as well as different parts of Romania. Around 200 pupils volunteer to participate in outreach work throughout the year visiting hospices and the elderly, working in primary schools, organising disabled sports, to name but a few, and a team regularly visit Romania to work with High School pupils and children with a variety of disabilities. Christ's Hospital's Romania project has already been used as a blueprint for other schools including the James Allen's Girls School in London, The King's School in Chester, Sevenoaks School in Kent and King's Edward's Southampton.
Muir John Potter said, “We are absolutely delighted that the work we have been doing in specific parts of Romania will be scaled up into a national strategy. This must be a first in Christ's Hospital's 450 years to have spearheaded the launch of a strategy that will make such a major contribution to a country's national education policy”.
For more information about the Romania project, please refer to www.snac-ro.org
National Rugby Fives Success for Christ's Hospital
Two boys from Christ's Hospital achieved a first time ever success for the School. Nick Simpson, aged 14 and George Hobden, aged 13, won the doubles trophy and Nick also carried away the singles Under 14's Rugby Fives National Schools' Championships which took place during the Easter holidays at St Paul's School in South West London.
Fives is one of the School Club Options available to all pupils, and in the Lent Term it is played as a major school sport. George and Nick spend much of their spare time practising and as a result, they were asked to represent Christ's Hospital at St Paul's competing against 50 teams from 12 other schools.
The boys are both keen players of the game. Since starting at Christ's Hospital, their skill was quickly recognised as they were entered to play for the Under 13's a year early.
George commented “The game is fast and fun. In most court sports, you use a racket but for this you use gloved hands. It's not unlike Squash. The competition was tough but we had a game plan where to play the ball – we're really pleased to have won”.
They will now go on the West of England tour and then play for the Under 16's Nationals.
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Inspection of Water Tower
A hydraulic access platform, thought to be one of the largest in the country (72 metres high), was manoeuvred to Christ's Hospital to carry out a survey of the condition of the School's 40 metres high water tower.
As part of Christ's Hospital's maintenance programme of its Grade II listed buildings, the School is now half-way through the refurbishment of its sixteen boarding houses, which are just over 100 years old,and is carrying out a planned programme of maintenance and repair to preserve other parts of the site, including the magnificent water tower. Another recently completed project was the restoration of the Dining Hall window bays.
The water tower was completed in 1902 as an integral part of the School's purpose built facilities to supply water to the entire site. Situated on the North side of the Quadrangle, the tower still contains the water tanks, drained in the 1980's, which were used to store water from the reservoir on Sharpenhurst Hill, Itchingfield. The reservoir is slightly above the same level as the top of the tower which creates a natural reaction allowing the tanks to fill by gravity, so the water in the tanks was not pumped in any way. This is a remarkable piece of Victorian engineering.
Structural Engineers, Lister Beare, believe the steel which supports the water tanks is suffering from corrosion which, in the long term, could affect the tower's brickwork. Michael Beare, consultant structural engineer has been working on projects to preserve Christ's Hospital's buildings for many years. He commented “This inspection confirms the wisdom of the School's policy of inspecting the buildings and undertaking the maintenance necessary to keep the buildings in good and safe order”.
Grecians' Lectures
One of the series of Grecians' Lectures was on journalism today and the School was delighted to welcome back Old Blue, Jamie Coomarasay, to speak about his career and experiences as a World Affairs reporter.
James was at CH 1978-1985 and then went to Trinity Hall Cambridge (1986-1990) where he graduated in Modern and Medieval Languages (Russian and French). He started out in the BBC as a locally hired producer in the Moscow office in 1991, staying in Russia until the end of 1993 - with the BBC for 18 months, then as a freelance reporter/producer. He spent a year in the BBC World TV newsroom in London as a producer, then went back to Moscow at the end of 1994 as a staff producer. He started reporting for the BBC during that period and - at the end of 97 - went to Warsaw as the BBC correspondent covering Eastern Europe . He then worked as a reporter on the Today programme, before being posted to Paris as correspondent between 1999 and May 2003. He also did stints during that period as a reporter on Newsnight. Since coming back to the UK , he has been a World Affairs Reporter - mainly for the BBC's international channels - covering European and UK issues. He has also been presenting World Service radio news and - on a couple of occasions - the Today programme.
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Christ's Hospital Rugby and Hockey Tour to South Africa in 2004
Christ's Hospital Rugby and Hockey development squads are intending to tour South Africa in July/August 2004, as part of the on-going commitment we have to the nurturing and development of sporting talent. The tour will provide an opportunity for rich educational experience and allow a number of players to focus seriously on their sport over the forthcoming seasons.
The Rugby and Hockey teams totalling 42 pupils will play 5 matches while in South Africa, the tour will begin in Cape Town on 18th July and end in Johannesburg at the beginning of August. As well as the expected hard physical matches, the pupils will have the opportunity to visit a township and do some sightseeing, visit table mountain and have a two night stay at a top game reserve.
Pupils and staff are aiming to raise half the money for this major tour through fundraising and sponsorship.
Senior Grecian is Guest Speaker at Founders Day Dinner in America
Senior Grecian, Tamas Lorinczy, was invited by The Friends of Christ's Hospital (a group of Old Blues resident in the US ) to Founder's Day Dinner in Washington as guest speaker. The trip (4 th – 7 th November) also included a visit to New York and The White House.
The Friends of Christ's Hospital is a US based charity established by a group of Old Blues to encourage interest and support for Christ's Hospital. There are 140 members in the US from across the country. In his Founder's Day Dinner talk, Tamas spoke of how the School has changed over the last fifty years, a topic which was welcomed by the US Old Blues, many of whom moved to the US in the 1960s and are keen to learn of changes and developments at their old School.
During his stay in New York, Tamas was fortunate enough to visit the United Nations and other points of interest including Wall Street, the Metropolitan Opera House and Ground Zero. The following day was spent in Washington seeing The White House and the Lincoln Memorial. Dinner was at the Cosmos Club, one of the City's most renowned restaurants and private clubs. A visit to Arlington to see the burial site of President John F Kennedy and the Tomb of the Unknowns concluded this amazing opportunity.
"It was an experience that will stay with me for years to come; such an exciting time in such a short time, particularly during the election period. I am extremely grateful to Michael Allen and the other Friends of Christ's Hospital" said Tamas.
Tamas aims to read history and politics at University and is currently studying history and philosophy A Levels at Christ's Hospital.
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Christ's Hospital Band Calendars 2005 : Limited Edition
An enterprising pupil, Harwood Robinson, has designed and published a 2005 calendar featuring the School's famous Band to raise funds for the School's music tour fund. This is the fourth Band calendar in succession that Harwood has produced and as this is his last year at Christ's Hospital and final calendar, each one is numbered. The calendar features pictures of some of the Band's performances in 2004 such as at Lord's, Beating Retreat, St Matthew's Day and in the Carfax, Horsham.
This limited edition calendar can be ordered from Harwood by sending a cheque for £5 (incl p+p) to H. Robinson, Leigh Hunt B, Christ's Hospital, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 0YP. Cheques payable to Christ's Hospital.
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CHRIST'S HOSPITAL at the Purcell Room
The School's seventh appearance in the Purcell Room included:
Three jazz ensembles
The Senior Wind Quintet performing the Nielsen Quintet
Close Harmony Group
The Senior Girls' Choir
The Concerto Ensemble
A range of impressive soloists
Lord Mayor's Show
Christ's Hospital's Band, the Senior Grecian and Second Monitor were again greatly honoured to be invited to participate in the famous Lord's Mayor's Show on Saturday, 8 November.
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Calendars
An enterprising pupil, Harwood Robinson, at Christ's Hospital, Horsham, has designed and published a 2004 calendar featuring the School's famous Band and notelets to raise funds for his school's music tour fund.
The calendar can be ordered from Harwood by sending a cheque for £5 (incl p+p) to H. Robinson, Leigh Hunt B, Christ's Hospital, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 0YP. Notelets are also £5. Cheques payable to Christ's Hospital.
Junior Chess Training
Pupils who enjoy a game of chess were given some expert coaching recently by Julian Simpole. Julian was awarded the title of official World Chess Federation Organiser this year, in recognition of his work in creating and running important international tournaments in the UK.
Chess has been growing in popularity at Christ's Hospital, particularly since a new 'Wests' Gift' Chess Challenge competition was launched last year.
Julian has recently published a book 'Junior Chess Training: Improve Your Chess and Win' which is available via the internet www.hardingesimpole.co.uk/titleindex.html and bookshops.
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RAF Foundationers' Trust 50 Years Celebration
The first 50 years of the RAF Foundationers' Trust set up for the benefit of children of RAF personnel was celebrated at Christ's Hospital School, Horsham, West Sussex, with some esteemed guests on Saturday, 20 September 2003.
Senior officers from the RAF and members of the Barnes Wallis family, included two of his sons and one of his daughters, were welcomed to the School for a formal ceremony of thanksgiving, a fly-past by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and a Barnes Wallis presentation. Sir Barnes Wallis was educated at Christ's Hospital and original founder of the Trust.
Special guest Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Wilson, President of the Aircrew Association, said “This is a wonderful foundation and award for children. I was at Christ's Hospital 45 years ago, so this is a special return. I met Sir Barnes and have lasting memories of him – to see that he left a marvellous legacy which, over the years, has helped over 100 boys and girls here is wonderful”.
Despite the success of the Dambusters Raid in 1943, Wallis remained deeply conscious of the fact that 55 RAF men had died. So, when he was awarded £10,000 by the government in 1950 for his World War Two inventions, he would accept no money for himself. Instead, he used the entire award to help found the RAF Foundationers' Trust at Christ's Hospital, with the RAF Benevolent Fund and the RAF Association also contributing £10,000 each, and a further £45,000 being added in 1990 by the 617 Squadron Aircrew Association.
PICTURED RIGHT: (Left to Right) Wing Commander Alistair Monkman, DFC, MA, BA, RAF Commanding Officer of 617 Squadron at RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland, RAF Foundationer pupil at Christ's Hospital School , Dr Mary Stopes-Roe, daughter of Sir Barnes Wallis.
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flies over the Quad at Christ's Hospital School , Horsham, West Sussex – stirred the emotions of the crowd.
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St Matthews Day, 19 September 2003
The St Matthew's Day Service this year was held at the Church of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, Holborn. The Sermon was given by The Revd. Alasdair Coles, St Paul 's Cathedral and the First and Second Lessons read eloquently by the Senior Grecian and Second Monitor respectively. The pupils, led by the Band, then paraded from St Sepulchre's via Newgate Street , saluting as they passed the plaque which commemorates the site of the London school, to Guildhall where they were guests of the Lord Mayor of the City of London , Vice President of Christ's Hospital.
St Matthew's Day traditionally was the day on which the Governors of Christ's Hospital were elected. Today, the School has over 650 Governors; their generosity continues to help support the education of Christ's Hospital's pupils