October 8, 2021

Honouring our David Lean Scholars

Today, our 2020 and 2021 David Lean Scholars were recognised by the Head in a special awards ceremony.

The David Lean Scholarship is an honorary title bestowed to those students that achieve exceptional results at GCSE. However, this group of scholars are not only esteemed for their grades, but the manner by which they attained them; navigating periods of guided distance learning and remaining adaptable and dedicated whilst doing so.

2021 Scholar, Bella, commented “The benefits to being a scholar would be the joy, that your achievements are being celebrated, personally it felt great when I found out I’d gotten the scholarship… I like learning and I put a lot of hard work into studying and appreciating the content I do at school. As a scholar, I hope to delve deeper into the subjects I love in school, then eventually at university, and of course in my own time.”

This summer, 14% of students achieved grade 9s in their courses with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) subjects coming out on top. Other outstanding subjects included German where 80% of the cohort achieved grade 9 and Music with 67% grades 7-9.

Matthew Judd, Head, Beverley Eldridge, Head of Year 10, 11 and Pre-Sixth and Alex Wallace, Deputy Head Academic Studies, sung the praises of the worthy group of scholars. Before shaking hands and congratulating them on their efforts, Matthew, spoke about the legacy that Old Leightonian, David Lean, leaves here on the Park.

“He was amongst the best in the film business and perhaps the most influential British director of the second half of the twentieth century. He was recognised for the humanity and care he brought to his work and much of this can be traced back to his upbringing; his family were Quakers and from the age of 13-18 he was educated at Leighton Park.”

As part of the School’s centenary celebrations in 1990, the man himself said, “They were always very keen on photography here – they had a jolly good dark room. I mean, I suppose it would be laughable today… I used to spend all my pocket money there.” Although technology may have come a long way since David was a student here, the School’s affinity for encouraging students to experiment with media and music remains.

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