Silver for Alex Platt in the English Swimming Championships in the 50 metre freestyle event and an 11th place in the 100 metre freestyle in the U13 age group. She and her brother Ben, were also selected to race in the Surrey County relays this month and Alex will represent Surrey in the Swim England National County Team Championships in October. Congratulations both!
Honoured to have taken part in the Memorial Service at RAF Lakenheath for those that lost their lives in the events of 9/11. Members of the Pipes and Drums, invited and hosted by 494 Fighter Squadron, were humbled to have taken part in their poignant commemorations. Students were also given the opportunity to tour around the aircraft and watch them take off, as well as learning about what goes on in the control room.
The chance watching of a documentary on Mormonism has led to the winning of a national competition for Sixth Form student Zoe Legge.
Zoe has long-maintained an interest in religion and social anthropology, developing a fascination for the Mormon Church after watching ‘Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey’. And when she heard about the Massolit video essay competition, in association with Brasenose College, Oxford, she decided to enter, using Mormonism as her subject.
Over 200 students in Years 10, 11 and 12 from across the UK took part in the competition to produce a video lecture of around eight to 12 minutes on any academic topic. Zoe’s video was picked as the winner by the judges and she will travel to Oxford University this month to be presented with £200 in vouchers as well as the opportunity for her video essay to be professionally filmed, edited and featured on massolit.io as a teaching resource.
Last year Zoe was in the top 100 entrants from across the world for Foyle’s Young Poets of the Year Award and won first place in the Rotary Young Writer competition. A passionate champion of and participant in the creative arts, she played one of the leading roles in the school’s production of Made in Dagenham and is keen to audition for the next whole school musical as well as provide her expertise in the up-coming lower school productions.
Currently studying for four A Levels, she hopes for a career in investigative journalism and said of Mormonism: “It is really important to spread knowledge about the Mormon Church.
“It’s so easy to get misinformation these days. TicToc spreads a lot of false information and we need to start looking at the facts”.
Welcome to our new Residential Boarders beginning their journey at Gordon’s today. Tomorrow our new Year 12 and Year 7 Day Boarders arrive with lessons beginning on Thursday for all students. If you’re new to Gordon’s, perhaps worried about how you will fit in, here’s a short video showing how we’re all equally different but all part of Gordon’s. Best of luck to all our returning and new students for the new academic year.
A summer of sailing for Kaitlyn Wyatt, who has travelled across Europe since breaking up from school, to compete in international sailing competitions.
The Gordon’s Sixth Form student headed to Poland to take part in the ILCA6 Youth European Championships, in the Women’s Olympic Class dinghy. This was only her third regatta at this level, finishing fourth amongst the GB team.
Two weeks later, she was flying to Greece for the ILCA4 Youth World Championships with little wind, wild fires, and a smaller sail! There, Kaitlyn finished third amongst the GB female competitors.
Kaitlyn, who has only been sailing for five years, returned to the UK and Hayling Island for the ILCA National Championships, back in the ILCA6 the Olympic dinghy, she was up against all age groups in mixed gender racing over six days, finishing fifth female overall and second U19.
Few people can claim to have played cricket on the hallowed turf of Lord’s cricket ground once, let alone twice! Yet two cricketers from Gordon’s and Valley End Cricket Club, Izzy Moors and Abi Shaw-Hales managed the feat this Summer. Both were involved in their second Lord’s final when they turned out for the rapidly advancing Guildford Hub in the prestigious MCC National Hub T20 Competition.
After their loss to Bolton the previous summer, the Guildford team were determined to turn the tables on the northern powerhouse side of Bolton at this historic venue.
In a final billed as ‘the northern supercharges versus the southern brave’, Shaw-Hales led Guildford to a memorable victory over Bolton Hub.
After a highly organised display in the field, where Guildford restricted Bolton to an average score of 102/3 off their 20 overs, Guildford were in a spot of bother at 27/3 off 7.1 overs. However, in strode the in-form Moors who brought a much-needed injection of positivity and calm to the run chase. Steering Guildford to a much improved 79/5 off 14.2 overs, Moors was joined by her teammate and captain Shaw-Hales. Shaw-Hales then went about dispatching the Bolton bowling to all corners of the ground in her cameo innings of 16 in just eight balls. When she was dismissed at 101/6 the job was all but done. Moors saw Guildford over the line just one ball later, winning by four wickets and thrilling the audience of over 1,000 spectators.
Shortly afterwards, Guildford were presented with their medals by England Women’s Captain Heather Knight. Captain Shaw-Hales, who has been playing cricket for four years, said: “After the winning run, the whole team was filled with excitement and we all ran out to celebrate with the batters. It was a memorable moment for all of us and one that I will cherish forever.”
Notably, as well as her match winning 29 not out, Moors had also bowled three extremely accurate overs earlier in the day, giving away just five runs, which were vital in Guildford's mission of restricting Bolton to a score they felt confident chasing.
Moors, who plays for Gordon’s First team, took her passion for cricket to Valley End CC. This was followed by also joining the Guildford team just two years ago.
Both girls are also keen netball players so had little time to celebrate their cricket victory as they were whisked off to Heathrow to board a flight to South Africa for the Gordon’s netball tour!
John the coach said to Moors before she walked onto the pitch that he needed her to stay in and bat to the end. She confessed, “I felt the pressure” and was “scared” walking out but said: “after a while I felt perfectly fine and enjoyed playing”.
“It was a great feeling to win, especially as they had last year! It was such a great atmosphere to walk out. The whole day was such an amazing atmosphere, and a day I will never forget.”
Shaw-Hales also admitted to some nerves beforehand: “Going onto the pitch to bat, I was nervous, but excited and I remember thinking that I just wanted to do well and do my part for the team. Immediately when I went into bat I was much more relaxed, as Izzy, one of my best friends, who also plays at the same club as me, was the person I was batting with.
“Whenever we bat together, we usually get a good partnership, and so going into the game I was already in a good mindset, which I think is definitely key for batting, as it can be very pressurising.”
She added: “It was an unreal experience and something I will remember for the rest of my life”.
Reflecting on the game, Shaw-Hales said: “Our coach John, said to me that the other players, only had three aspects of the game to think about: bowling, batting and fielding, however I had another one: captaining. it was definitely a challenge for me as I had a lot to think about, but I would like to credit the whole team as many of my teammates helped with decisions, especially our two vice captains, who both have very good knowledge of the game.
“After winning, I was so proud of the whole team as everyone had worked hard for this and had contributed to the victory. I was also really proud of how everyone has supported each other throughout the competition”.
She added: “For any other girls interested in playing cricket, I would just say go for it. it can be a hard sport to get into, especially for girls, however, more and more girls are getting involved in the sport and opportunities in cricket for girls are increasing as we speak. I joined my club when there were no girls’ teams, and just seven girls!
“I did not once think that I would have the incredible opportunity to play, let alone win, a final at Lords with many other talented female players, which just proves how far women's cricket has come and it will most definitely continue to grow in the future.
“It has been amazing to be part of the growth in girls’ cricket. I am very grateful that the MCC Foundation have set this competition up as I have found it a great opportunity and have met so many amazing people”.
Smiles all round as GCSE students learned of their outstanding results this morning, which have broken two school records! The historic ‘gold standard’ of five or more GCSEs were achieved by 92% of students, 88% were graded 9-5, a school record and 53% attained 9-7 – a further school record. Congratulations all!
Topping the tables was Mair Price with ten Grade 9s and sisters Bei-Yee and Wei-Yee Zhou with nine Grade 9s each.
Also among the stand-out results was Jemima Robinson’s nine Grade 9s and one Grade 8. Jemima (pictured below) said: “Those were my target grades but I didn’t expect them – I’m really happy!”
For further information about the A Level and GCSE results for 2023, please click here.
Best of luck to all our students waiting for their GCSE and BTEC results tomorrow (24th August). Results will be ready for collection in the Rec at 10am and will be emailed to students’ school accounts from 10.30am.
A nail-biting win for Kanishk Rao in the British National Karting Championship in Scotland, earning him fifth place in the National Championship leaderboard. The 12 year old driver, racing for Oliver Rowland Motorsport, heads to Belgium this weekend for the final round of the IAME European Championship race. Best of luck Kanishk!
With first places in the U14 Boat and Cable Wakeboarding National finals and fourth place in the WWA Cable Wakeboarding World Championships, Gordon’s Marley O’Toole now ranks top in the national rankings of the sport and eighth in the world! A fantastic Summer for Marley who only started wakeboarding four years ago!
Jubilant scenes at Gordon's this morning as students came into collect another superb set of results in which 86% achieved A* to C; 65% A* to B and 31%A*-A. BTEC results were also outstanding with 75% securing a Merit+. Gordon's Headmaster Andrew Moss paid tribute to the students and staff saying: “These are the last of four public examinations directly affected by the Covid pandemic. Congratulations to our students and staff for their hard work and commitment in achieving a set of superb results given the challenges posed by the pandemic.”
Further information on the results can be found here.
Best of luck to all our students receiving their results tomorrow. Those wishing to collect their A Level or BTEC results from school may do so from the Rec at 8am on Thursday 17th August. Results will also be emailed to students at 8.30am to their school email account.
