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The Record - February 2016
Welcome to the latest copy of The Record. Spring is here! The daffodils are out and the sun is shining (hopefully). This is
always a fantastic time of year in the school calendar. Students and staff have worked hard through the Autumn Term and
are now reaping the benefits - feeling confident about what has been learnt and what needs to be achieved. For the exam
classes (Year 11 and Upper Sixth), there will be a feeling of gathering momentum as we move towards the summer examinations. Having not had to endure the January public examinations has been a great relief and so high quality teaching
and learning is giving all students the opportunity to engross themselves in a love of the subjects they are studying. I
would encourage all students to fall in love with what they do so that when the final hurdle arrives there is confidence and
enjoyment in the challenge. The difference between good outcomes and outstanding outcomes now very much comes
down to the working environment at home and the genuine work ethic of all students as they develop the metal required
to take on the thing that is most difficult as it is too easy to study the things we find easy.
Please encourage your son or daughter to identify the things which they feel less confident on and target these topics first
so they might turn their weaknesses into strengths. Under separate cover, I have sent a summary of our public examination results from 2015. I hope this gives everyone confidence in the knowledge that they attend one of the best schools in
the country where through hard work and dedication anything is possible and no challenge is too difficult.
Mr J J Wilden, Headmaster
Gold CREST Awards by Dr McColl
Congratulations to 10 of our Sixth Form students who have
been awarded Gold CREST Awards. The CREST Award scheme
is organised by the British Science Association and Gold
Awards are given for Science projects requiring around 70
hours research work which is carried out during Sixth Form
Enrichment and STEM club.
Our successful students include Carmen Van-deL'Isles, Bevaan
Shobanakumaran, Favour Amike, Momoka Takaya, Bhanushan
Paramanshan, Dhilan Patel, Terri Kennedy- Smith, Marcella
Cato, Shakunt Tambe and Maria Valliji and are photographed
left with Dr McColl.
PTFA Update by Steve Crosby, Chair WCGS PTFA
It has been a busy start to 2016 for the
PTFA as we have been getting ready
for our second year of running 11+
Familiarisation Tests (11+ Mocks).
Seats for the tests went on sale in mid
January and we have already sold
close to 600.
lating on the days of the tests in April,
May and June. Please drop an email
to Martin on [email protected].
All of the information about the Tests
can be found here
www.wcgsptfa.com. Please have a
look and please tell your friends
about this! We still have plenty of
places available. The tests are the
perfect preparation for Year 5 students who will be sitting entrance
exams later in the year and for our
school it is a wonderful way to raise
funds that will be put to good use for
the benefit of the students. I f you’d
like to be more involved with this project we’d be happy to have extra offers of help for stewarding and invigi-
The PTFA still continues to grow and
we now have a great team of parents
helping out at the various events and
projects that we run. Of course we
At our recent meeting we were able to
are always very happy to see new
allocate funds to the Physics Departfaces, so please just drop us a line at
ment for a new books and the minibus
[email protected] and say hello if
that we have been able to purchase
you’d like to help out from time to
for the School will soon be seen in all
time. We would love to see you.
of its sign-written glory when it arrives in March! We are very happy
Many thanks,
that we can continue to support all
Steve Crosby
departments in the School with requests for funding.
Chair WCGS PTFA
We will be running a Pop-Up Second
Hand Uniform and Refreshments Shop
at the Year 8 Parents’ Evening on 25th
April. Come and see us in Maths
Room 6 for some excellent bargains
and a refreshing cuppa! We’ll be
there from 5.00pm onwards.
On a social level we have a Spring
General Knowledge Quiz planned in
April and later in the year look out for
our exciting Bollywood Night. Information on these events can be found
on our website so please take time to
have a ‘nose’ - www.wcgsptfa.com
Please register with easyfundraising to help raise money for WCGS as you shop:
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/wallingtoncountygrammar
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Top of the Bench Chemistry Competition by Mr Hasan
Some of the School’s best chemists competed in the ‘Top of the Bench’ Chemistry Competition run by the Royal Society of Chemistry in January. Students aged 13-16 were
assessed on their practical and theoretical
skills, requiring them to conduct advanced
chemistry experiments within a time limit.
After a tense 2 hours our boys managed to
secure third place – just short of qualifying
for the national finals. Congratulations to
Samuel Emilolorun, Jaivin Gohil, Girudhihan
Mohanarajah and WIlliam Vasudevan (left to
right) for competing.
Year 8 Arts Day by Mrs Weddell
On 9th February our Year 8 students participated in ‘Arts
Day’. The day provided an exciting opportunity for them
to spend four hours working in a creative subject with
the goal of producing something to present in the afternoon. Focusing on the theme ‘Brazil’, the students created Olympic torches (pictured), a piece of Samba music,
a Brazilian folk-tale, a range of Brazilian delicacies, a
beautiful display of Brazilian printed artwork, and a very
impressive set of electronic dice. The students’ hard
work and enthusiasm culminated in a fantastic celebration of their creative talent at the end of the day. We
look forward to seeing what they’ll produce next.
Identity by Tomisin Ajeneye, 7BR
The world we live in, full of many people as you can see
Religions such as Buddhism and Christianity
From skin colour, how you act and just simple firm thoughts
Just think about the identities that this great world has brought
Religion, a massive part of many peoples’ lives
To do goodwill and serve their god is what they aim to strive
Cults and religions such as Sikhism and Scientology
Are just the small pieces that build up to make an identity
Looks and facial appearances are also another piece
That gives everyone that unique touch of individuality
Whether your skin is mixed raced, black or whether it’s white
Or even if your eyes sparkle with a tone of bright blue light.
All these features makes a person ‘them’ as you can see
But also gives that person their own individuality.
Once again we are collecting Sainsbury’s vouchers – please drop your vouchers into the collection box at
Student Services.
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ARTiculation at WCGS by Mr Grant, FRSA
The WCGS Art Department recently held an internal heat in the
national ARTiculation competition. This excellent initiative encourages Sixth Form students to present an art historical and analytical lecture to their peers on an artwork of their choice. Featuring a diverse range of works, from the atmospheric Night Hawks
by Edward Hopper to the controversial sculpture of Allen Jones,
the students demonstrated a firm grasp on the issues surrounding
their chosen art objects and were passionate in their promotion of
their favoured works. The winner of our internal heat – who then
progressed to represent the School at the prestigious Whitechapel Gallery – was Zach Barnett. Zach delivered his speech on
‘Kant’s dynamical sublime in Winter Landscape by Caspar
Freidrich’ in the gallery to a large and engaged audience. While
Zach could not secure the position necessary to push on to the
national final in Cambridge, he represented our school with superb aplomb, expertly walking the line between two of his passions – the fine arts and philosophy. The audience was reminded
how art can allow us to access parts of ourselves that are difficult
to articulate, and that the mystical experience of the sublime is a
universal and therefore real aspect to the human condition. We all
learned something whilst listening!
Sutton Borough Exhibition of Youth Art by Miss Musselbrook
Wallington County Grammar School
was again well represented at the Sutton Borough Exhibition of Youth Art.
The exhibition took place between
January 28th and February 9th and is
held in the Europa Gallery within Sutton Library. WCGS work was well received with many compliments and
enquiries about the ideas behind the
work. A special mention for Ralph
Clifton (L6th) and Samuel Zubaid
(Year 11) who were highly commended for their portrait pieces.
The exhibition takes place at the same
time each year and is well worth a
visit. There are many talented artists
in our borough and it is a great opportunity to celebrate the arts. My particular thanks to Mrs Donald and Ms Calvo who set up our part of the exhibition.
Art Club News by Mrs Donald
Dear Readers,
I am writing to congratulate the Art Department on it’s amazing work, not just in school lessons, but letting students express themselves making art projects from origami to mosaics.
In Art Club, this amazing hour has helped us to socialise with
different year groups. It’s certainly interesting. We have
learnt some useful techniques, which I will use in my future
as a budding artist. I enjoyed smashing tiles and shaping
them with tile nippers.
The Art Club has been running since September 2015 and
has seen a committed number of students returning each
week to create a mosaic. Kathir Sayon (8RA, above left)
and Mikhil Patel (7RU, image above right) were the first to
finish. More photographs will follow in the next edition of
the newsletter. Kathir has written about his experience:
Being the first to complete my mosaic allowed me to see
each stage and whether it was hard or not. I can say that I
persevered with enthusiasm; from creating a design, cutting
tiles, sticking the tiles to the base, to grouting and creating a
piece of art as I have.
Please remember that if you are visiting the School or waiting for your son/daughter at any time of the day,
please park considerately in neighbouring roads and not over dropped kerbs. Thank you.
We are always keen to receive parental views. Any suggestions for improvement, ideas for implementation or
comments on what we have done well, please email Mrs Owen on [email protected]
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Year 11 Hospitality GCSE Trip to Carshalton College – February 2016 by Mr Selby
At the start of February, nine Year 11
students studying the Hospitality
GCSE were given the opportunity to
experience the Hospitality industry
first-hand. The students visited Nightingales, an in-house training restaurant staffed by student chefs, at Carshalton College.
The students were given an insight
into what it is like to work in the Hospitality industry as the three course
meal they enjoyed was prepared,
cooked and served by the trainee
chefs. They were also fortunate to be
given a very brief look at the industrial kitchen that the students work in.
The trip was designed to provide the
students with key aspects of the Hospitality industry so that they can now
develop their written and practical
assessments for their GCSE later this
year.
GCSE Options Support Day at WCGS by Mathursan Karunagaran and Pranav Rajkumar, Year 8
On the 1st February I met many Year 11s. They
were different as they had aspirations they wanted
to achieve. I found this talk with the Year 11s really helpful. They told us how they manage their
homework and what they work on. I went around
to all the subjects to see if I wanted to change my
options.
I also met professionals, a trainee GP, an environmental engineer, a career advisor, a lawyer (who
had started his career in a military field), a consultant radiologist, and also a naval architect. They
all helped me in choosing my career. In my opinion, I found the naval architect most interesting.
This is because I like how they repair the engines
and how they get on the vast ships.
To conclude, the day was full of inspiring people,
who helped me in my GCSE options and most importantly my future career choice. They told us
students, subjects we needed to achieve that career. The Year 11s were really helpful as well as
the professionals. This is because they showed
what subjects I needed most to accomplish my
future career choice.
IET Diamond Jubilee Scholarship Winner
Congratulations to former student Sundar Ashish
on receiving the Diamond Jubilee Scholarship
from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). He is one of a few of the elite set of engineering students who have been awarded this
prestigious award as the IET and its partners invest £3million in the UK’s up and coming engineering talent over the next five years to tackle
the lack of engineers. The IET Diamond Jubilee
Scholarship scheme is now in its third year. The
scholarships will provide each winner with at least
£1,000 per academic year. Winners will also benefit from mentoring and work experience placements through the IET’s extensive networks, in an
attempt to close the ever growing skills gap which
has increased for the ninth year running.
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On our GCSE options support day, we met lots of people who
have jobs in different fields of work. I met six different people
today and they talked to us about the qualifications needed for
their specific job and the skills that are required. Surprisingly,
these people don’t consider money as the most significant factor. They do their job because it rewards them in terms of satisfaction. One of the most interesting talks was from the consultant radiologist because he talked to us about how he helps
patients and that satisfaction is much more important than the
salary. Furthermore, he told us that he has to check MRI and Xray scans to find out problems with the patients.
The main thing I learnt was that creative options are needed
because they give you good skills which can help you with
your future career.
The second half of the GCSE Options Day was when we talked
with the Year 11 students about all the subjects you can take for
GCSE. This made me reconsider my options for GCSE because
I got extra information about job profiles etc. This really
helped me understand all the requirements for GCSEs and all
the other rules. This also helped me get tips from the Year 11
students on how to revise for exams.
In conclusion, this was a really good day which benefitted all
the Year 8 students and it helped me, specifically, to reconsider which career I should pursue in the future. Now, I know lots
of jobs in the working world.
School Play: Children of Killers by Miss Weddell
This year, we are excited to be collaborating with
the National Theatre’s ‘Connections’ team to bring to
life one of 12 specially commissioned plays for
young people. Our play, ‘Children of Killers’ by Katori Hall, tells the dark story of a community awaiting
the return of their fathers – the killers – 20 years after
the Rwandan genocide. We would like to invite you
all to watch the play at school from 16th-18th March,
but there will also be a special performance at the
Lyric Hammersmith on 6th May. Information regarding ticket sales will be sent out next half-term, but do
put these dates in your diary today!
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WCGS Alumni by Brian Nicholls, Former Student
This is the first in a series of articles about prominent Old Boys of the School.
DOUGLAS ALLEN was only three
months old when his father was killed
in 1915 whilst serving in the First
World War. He joined the School as a
pupil in the first intake in 1927. He
was naturally brilliant and was always
well ahead of his contemporaries. At
the age of 15 he obtained his General
School Certificate with 6 distinctions.
Two years later he was awarded one
of the few county major scholarships
available. He won an entrance scholarship to the London School of Economics where he was the leading
student and in 1938 achieved the rare
distinction of a BSc with First Class
Honours in Statistics. He then entered
the Civil Service after success in the
competitive examination for a position in the Administrative Grade but
he was soon to be conscripted into
the Royal Artillery. When he returned
to the Civil Service he quickly advanced to find himself at the centre of
Britain’s post-war economic crisis and
went on to work over the next 30
years with 15 Chancellors of the Exchequer. Following the award of a
knighthood in 1967 he was appointed
as Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury and in July 1974 became Head of
the Civil Service. He retired in 1977
and in the following year he was
made a life peer taking the title of The
Lord Croham. In his retirement he
spent five years as an adviser to the
Bank of England. Although diminutive
in size he had the reputation of being
direct and was not shy of telling Ministers what he thought. That said, he
was a modest and unassuming man
with a puckish sense of humour. In
spite of the pressure and increasing
demands of his work, he remained in
close contact with the School and the
Old Boys and stayed involved until his
death in September 2011.
LEN REYNOLDS left the School in
1940 and joined the Royal Navy. He
was commissioned into the RNVR and
served on a motor gun boat, MGB
658, for the rest of the war, first as a
navigating officer, then as a firstlieutenant before being given command at the early age of 21experiencing front-line action. In 1943 in preparation for the Sicily landings MGB 658
helped to prevent attack by German
E-Boats and in 1944 conducted dummy landings near Civita-Vecchia to
distract the enemy. On the night of
July 18 1944 MGB 658 was surprised
by an Italian destroyer and a salvo
ripped into the gunboat’s bridge.
Men, including the Captain, were
lying dead or wounded and the steering wheel was entangled with wires
from the fallen mast. Len assumed
command. He cleared the wreckage,
removed a corpse and made the
wounded as comfortable as possible
before steering the boat into Bastia in
Corsica. He later took part in clandestine operations in the Adriatic. He was
awarded the DFC. He returned from
the war first to undertake teacher
training at Goldsmith’s College and
then to teach at the School whilst studying at night for a degree at Birkbeck
College London. Once he had graduated he began to record his wartime
exploits. The end product of his work,
a book entitled ‘Motor Gunboat 658:
The Small Boat War in the Mediterranean’, was published in 1955. Following this Len was appointed Headmaster at Kendal Grammar and then at
Maidenhead Grammar School. He
became a JP and, in 1978, the Deputy
Lieutenant of Berkshire. He was
awarded the Silver Wolf (the Scout
Association’s highest award) and received an OBE for his services to the
scouting movement.
IAN BOYD, who was Captain of the
School in 1952, was a fine runner. He
held the School records for the 880
yards and 1 mile and was the leading
cross country runner. His athletic success was matched by his academic
achievement and, when at Brasenose
College Oxford, he became the first
Blue from Wallington C G S and won
races in the inter-varsity matches
both on the track and at cross country. At the same time he gained a first
class honours degree and subsequently a PhD. He represented GB in
the 1500 metre race at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne and finished 8th in a
time of 3 mins 42.9 secs, which was
faster than the previous Olympic record. He was the Captain of the England team at the Cardiff Empire
Games in 1957. He emigrated to New
Zealand and later became the Chairperson of NZ Athletics. After spending 20 years on the NZ Olympic Committee, he was made a life member of
Athletics NZ and a member of the NZ
Olympic Order. He also received the
civil award of Officer of the NZ Order
of Merit.
Self-Discipline Endeavour Excellence
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