Final Collect Spring Term 2024

The Final Collect of the Spring Term celebrated our students’ successes in English, Maths, Drama, Sport and STEAM on Friday 22nd March. The whole community gathered together in Main Hall to enjoy three pieces of music, to hear Matthew’s reflections on travelling through life, to receive the announcement of the new prefects and of course to celebrate the presentation of awards.

Matt Taylor, Head of English, commended Kemianna, Kimia and Leander (Lower Sixth) for their winning participation in the JBH Speech Competition; Will, Millie (Upper Sixth) and Devan (Year 8) for their involvement in the ISA Public Speaking Competition, and Livi for reaching the finals of the ISA Poetry Competition, only one of eight entrants nationally to do so.

Leni Samuels, Head of Maths, followed with her overview of the exciting programme in Maths. 30 Lower Sixth students have delivered six workshops to 30 Year 6 students from two of our partner primary schools. There have been outings to Bletchley Park, Maths Inspiration and the Maths Feast. In school Years 9 to 11 have undertaken the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge achieving 21 Bronze, 16 Silver and 12 Gold awards. Chelsea (Year 10) was delighted to win a Gold Award and Best in School.

Head of Science, David Hammond, combined his STEAM role and his debating responsibilities presenting the achievements of British Science Week at LP and recognising the successes of the EYP Debating team reaching the regional final for the second year running. The group are off to Liverpool for four-days in September to take part in the national competition, described by David as “The best experience ever to really see what life as an undergraduate is like. With skills at this level this group are well on the way to becoming changemakers.” David also congratulated Millie, Harriet and Will on their commitment to promoting debate and discussion across the school, running Arguably Awesome and delivering off site workshops and attending competitions with younger pupils, saying, “They’ve gone an extra 100 miles”.

The Drama Department reminded the community of the wonderful productions of ‘West Side Story’ and of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, awarding certificates. Peter Scoggins, Head of Drama, commented, “It’s great to be part of a team to make something exceptional. I can’t explain how perfect the West Side Story cast were and how committed they were.”

Simon Bradbury, Director of Sport, covered the sporting achievements of the community with Zoe Machpherson, Head of Girls’ Games, spotlighting the success of the U18s Senior Girls’ C Team in Netball for their victory, winning the league for the very first time. Other highlights included the Netball match against St Joseph’s at the University of Reading which we won 36-18 and the Staff vs Students match which saw the staff triumph with a 3-2 score.

The review of the merits, over 12,000 earned this term, was given by Eddie Falshaw, Deputy Head, with the 14 recipients of a Gold Award (75 merits) applauded, and the three Platinum Award (100 merits) holders Vivian, Flick (Upper Sixth) and Els (Year 8) presented with a certificate by Matthew Judd, Head.
Tubman had a clean sweep of the Merit trophies this term picking up the Castle Trophy for academic merits, the Sissons Cup for co-curricular merits and the Dunstan Award for community merits, all leading to claiming the House Cup. Joint Head of House, Erin Perkins, commented, “I’m very thrilled and quite shocked that we won all three cups of the mini-cups as well the House Cup! I definitely got my steps in today! I think everyone is delighted and very committed as well; it’s a good round off to the term for Tubman!”