Academic News

A team of five students from Shrewsbury School have been named the best in the country, and now have the opportunity to represent the UK at the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) being held in Germany in July 2012.

Alex Facey (captain, G UVI), Stephen Li (Rt UVI), James Brent (Rb LVI), Alastair Fisher (PH LVI) and Ratanon Suemanothom (G LVI) claimed victory over the runner-up team from John Leggott College, Scunthorpe, after winning a series of ‘Physics Fights’ which not only test their in-depth knowledge and problem-solving abilities in advanced physics, but also their presentational skills.

The UK Final took place at Shrewsbury in February; the adjudicators included Mark Tocknell (ex. Westminster School Physics Dept. and Second Master), John Balcombe on behalf of the UKYPT, and the team leader from John Leggott College.

All UK teams had been working on the solutions to five open-ended and challenging problems; our preparations began in September with bi-weekly meetings to research the solutions to:

•   floating drawing pins – attraction to other floating objects
•   a Gaussian cannon – optimal position of the magnet
•   bright waves (caustics) – relation between the waves and the pattern
•   a rolling bottle part filled with water – investigate its motion
•   coins balancing at an angle on a magnet – explain this curious effect

The teams were tasked with presenting details of their tests and findings at the final, before being quizzed on their works both by their opponents as well as by the tournament officials.

All the international teams are now preparing their solutions these 5 and a further set of 12 problems – more information on these and the IYPT can be found on http://iypt.org/Tournaments/Bad_Saulgau.

Shrewsbury’s success in this prestigious international competition has been quite extraordinary.  The first year that the UK took part in the competition was in 2003, and since then Shrewsbury School’s team has been judged to be the strongest team in the UK no fewer than six times!  Our teams have so far travelled to Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Croatia and China to take part in the International stage, and came away from China with bronze medals.

Please see our IYPT page for more information on the IYPT and Shrewsbury’s success over the years.

For parents of pupils in the Fifth and Sixth Forms: please see the Exam Leave arrangements for next term:
Exam Leave 2012.doc

For the third year in a row, four Shrewsbury students have reached the second round of the Royal Society of Chemistry Midlands Chemistry Quiz Competition.

In front of an enthusiastic audience, two 5th formers: Chris Papaioannou (PH), Stephen Chandler (PH), and two 4th formers: Charlie Davis (PH) and Oliver Hope (Ch), comfortably overcame the challenge of a weaker Ellesmere School team to win 93-46.

We move along to second round to face Wolverhampton Girls High School this coming week, after which the victors will prgress to the finals at the University of Birmingham later this month.

ADB

This is the second time that our MUN-ers have been to this small, very well-organised MUN conference at Lady Eleanor Holles in Hampton, London, mainly involving schools from the southeast such as City of London School, Royal Russell, Hampton, Wimbledon High and Wycombe Abbey.

Accompanied by HRWP and Harvard Fellow, Nils Sceery, 13 Shrewsbury boys and girls took part, representing France, South Korea and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The standard of debate was high and the Salopians – as ever – were in the thick of it.

Shrewsbury School's Democratic Republic of Congo team won the Outstanding Delegation Award, just ahead of Malvern St James, who were representing Iran.

Ed Elcock, our DRC ambassador, also won a Highly Commended Delegate award in his committee and his opening speech – a poem – was voted ‘Most Entertaining Speech’ by the MUN press team.

Moving around the committees, it was clear to me that every single member of the team was getting involved and making things fizz.

We are all very much looking forward to raising our performance at the George Watson’s MUN in Edinburgh and the Stockport Grammar MUN (March 23-25th), when a total of 28 Salopian debaters will be representing the school.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Ed Elcock (Ambassador): Economic and Social
Angus Thompson : Human Rights
Daniel Edwards: Political
Theo Simmons: Ecology and Environment
-----------------------------------
FRANCE
Jack Flowers (Ambassador): Human Rights
Kiran Morjaria: Political
Will Shindell: Ecology and Environment
Emerald Storey: Security Council
Xavier Greenwood: Economic and Social
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REPUBLIC OF KOREA (South Korea)
Cecily Higham: Human Rights
Anna Olerinyova: Ecology and Environment
Henry Dashwood: Political
Jack Huntley (Ambassador): Economic and Social
------------------------------------

Huw Peach

Over 1000 schools took part in the 2011/2012 Senior Team Mathematics Challenge, and once again the Shrewsbury team - this time comprising four boys from the Lower Sixth - made it through to the final round when they came first in the regional heat last term with a score of 169/176.

Win Chirayus (I), Martin Chow (SH), Non Suemanothom (G) and Peter Zhan (R), accompanied by Charlie Oakley, made an early start on Wednesday 1st February to travel down to London to take part in the Final. They finished a highly creditable 20th out of 63, with a score of 162/186. 

The Senior Team Maths Challenge is organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust for pupils aged between 16 and 18, and aims to promote mathematical dexterity, team working, and communication skills, giving pupils the opportunity to compete against pupils from other schools in their region.

Our regional contest took place at Keele last term, when Martin Hansen accompanied the boys.  There were three rounds at this stage - Round One required teams to work together to solve 10 problems in 40 minutes. Round Two involved a ‘cross-number’, like a crossword but with numeric clues and answers. The team split into two, one pair answered the ‘across’ clues and the other the ‘down’ clues, without consultation between the pairs. The final round was a relay, again in pairs. The first pair was set a problem - the answer for which was the clue for the second pair’s question and so on. There were four problems for the pairs to solve in eight minutes.

Please see the 2011-2012 STMC Entry Form for more information.

Sparkling talks on 'spells' ranging from Juvenal ('mens sana in corpore sano') to Nabokov, via Coleridge and e.e cummings were given by fourteen competitors for the coveted and ever esoteric 2012 McEachran Prize on Tuesday 31 January, commemorating this extraordinary and inspirational teacher. The judge was Dr Mark Archer, who in addition to his work in the City, is an occasional arts journalist for The Spectator, Wall Street journal, FT and Daily Telegraph.

The winner of the junior section was fourth former Theo Simmons, talking about one of his own poems 'Soulweight'. In second place was fellow fourth former John Dempsey, who gave an impassioned social analysis of William Blake's 'Holy Thursday'. Guy Cabral's fascinating talk on changing perceptions of the Latin tag 'mens sana in corpore sano' (the motto of his former prep school Summer Fields) was highly commended.  All three boys are in Churchill's Hall.

Xavier Greenwood (Rt) shared the senior prize with Ralph Wade (Rb).  Xavier gave an astonishingly accomplished reflection on the challenging opening and closing words of Nabokov's 'Lolita', but Ralph's polished and witty meditation on lines from The 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' made it impossible to choose an outright winner for this title. Second prize went to Rory Fraser (Ch), for his talk on Magee's 'High Flight', and James Humpish (SH) was highly commended for his deconstructionist analysis of an e.e.cummings poem.

RTH

Despite having four offers from top Russell Group universities, one of our Sixth Formers has chosen to start her career straight after A Levels. 

Megan Cherrington (EDH UVI) has gone through a highly competitive application process, and heard recently that she has been accepted onto KPMG's School Leavers' Programme. The five stages of the assessment took 3 months to complete, but Megan eventually received the good news when she was out at a restaurant, celebrating her father's birthday!

Megan's training with KPMG will start as soon as she joins.  The six year programme offers trainees the opportunity to gain work experience as well as a university degree and a professional accounting qualification - all entirely funded by KPMG. This is a powerful combination which allows trainees to start earning and building their career as soon as they finish school or college. Megan says she's "very excited about starting a new career path with something a little different from taking the normal route to university!"

Mrs. Weston has already asked Megan to come back next year to talk to the Sixth Form about the programme and how to apply for it!

L-R: Oliver Pearn, Henry Peat, Lesley Drew, James Pollard, Nick Pearce

Could you write a complete story in a few lines? Or in exactly 50 words, no more, no less?  The 3rd and 4th form took on the challenge, entered their ‘mini-sagas’ in a national competition, and 40 of them have been rewarded with the chance to see their stories in print.  With 40 successful  stories, as a school, we are well placed for the ‘Best School’ prize – worth £1,000 – which is to be announced at the end of April.

LJD

The Top Eight entries

The City
The mighty walls towered high above the dusty surface, as did the other buildings inside. The magnificent cathedral sat behind the protection of the large walls. The thick, powerful gate guarded the entrance of the city. The architect stepped back and smiled; his model of ancient Rome had been completed.
Nicholas Pearce (I IV)

9/11
To jump, or not to jump, that is the question. The building is falling down. I may have to suffer the planes of the hijacking terrorists. Or to take arms against a sea of stairs; by opposing them, to die? To jump? The heartache and one thousand natural shocks of jumping?
Charlie Duckworth (O IV)

The Football’s Story
The loud whistle blew; I was tapped on my side. The other man smacked me with his foot to reach the defender’s feet.  Another man slide tackled him, got up and kicked me to the goal. I hit the bar, the crowd went ‘Ahhh!’ very loudly, and so did I.
Henry Peat (Ch IV)

Villain versus Victim
In view, the hunter saw a vision of his humble vaudevillian prey. He viciously climbed the tree, violating its bark. He cast his vast arrow as both victim and villain, by the vicissitudes of fate, were vowed together….  He shot. He hit, therefore vanquishing these venal and virulent vermin forever.
Guy Hunter (O IV)

The Scene
-    I’m going to kill you! You murdered my mother and you will die for that!
-    She was my mother too, and I did not kill her! I loved her and you know that I would never do that!
-    Go to hell!
“Stop! Stop! That acting was terrible!” said the director.
Dmitry Lesnevskiy (O IV)

The Meeting
He stood there. The rain splashing down around him, the pitter-patter of the raindrops hit the ground around him, as he waited.  Nothing else moved, and, as he stood there, he thought of the message he’d received earlier. He was wrong. He turned and left. The rain swallowed his emotions.
Charlie Steele (O IV)

World War 3: the place not to be.
The year is 2018. The world is at war. WWIII has commenced. It’s the whole world versus Russia. I, Private ‘JP’, am with a group of elite soldiers, called the Navy Seals. We are armed and ready. Suddenly, 3 mushroom clouds rise into the sky. Can this be the end?
James Pollard (PH IV)

Final Journey
The formidable jail gates in front of me shone like a beacon in the Arizona Desert. The metal gates slowly creaked open. The bus ground to a stop with only one building in sight. The jail guards violently shunted me out of the bus; they had ‘Welcomed me to Hell!’
Oliver Pearn (S IV)

In addition, there are a couple of other more unusual Oxbridge success stories this year for former Salopian students, Karun Sandal and Alex Chamolly (further details below).

Shrewsbury's 2012 Oxbridge offers:

* Henry and Nick both have confirmed places, having taken their A Levels in 2011.

In addition to these 11 Oxbridge offers/places, we were delighted to hear that Karun Sandal (PH 2004-2008) and Alex Chamolly (Rt 2009-2010) were also successful in their applications.

Karun's story is a particularly unusual one.  He left Shrewsbury in 2008 at the end of the Lower Sixth, after receiving what he felt were disappointing results in his AS Levels in Maths, Spanish and Economics.  However, over 2 years later - at the start of 2011 - Karun decided to return to his A Levels, pursuing his real passion which was English.  Studying on his own, with the help of tutors, he was awarded an A* in Religious Studies A Level last summer, and for his AS Levels in History and Religious Studies he received A grades.

On the basis of these promising results, Karun decided to apply to Oxbridge to study English, and asked his former Fourth Form tutor here, Mike Schutzer-Weissman, for help in preparing him for the 'dreaded' entrance exam (ELAT).

Karun writes: "As well as successfully preparing me for the entrance exam, [Mr. Schutzer-Weissman] also helped me to engage with literature in a more rigorous way. By the time of the interview in December, I was a lot more confident!

"I'm certain Mr. Schutzer-Weissmann's tutorials were decisive in my successful application, especially with the ELAT which turned out to be the highest score out of all the candidates (58/60). So I owe an enormous amount to him, and obviously, the School."

Karun has been offered a place to read English as Somverville College, Oxford.

Alex Chomolly followed a path that a number of Salopian German students have taken, and joined our Lower Sixth for just one year, in September 2009. He then returned to his school in Germany to complete his education.  Alex has a place to read Maths at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Shrewsbury has an extraordinary record of success in the national Omnibus Gladstone Competition - the UK's premier essay prize in Classics - but this year was our best ever as Salopian classicists were awarded both the First and Second prize.

Ellie Moodey (MSH UVI) took first prize with her essay "Ovid's Metamorphoses - pornography or morality lesson?", and Angus Thompson's (G UVI) essay "How good a storyteller is Homer?" was awarded second prize.

Ellie has now had her winning entry published in the magazine 'Omnibus', the magazine for students of the Classical world, which is read by sixth-formers and undergraduates throughout the UK and beyond. 

Last year, George Ellis's essay "Courting controversy: Shakespeare's use of Ovid in Venus and Adonis" was awarded 1st prize in the Gladstone competition, and in each of the three previous years Salopians have been runners-up.

We are delighted that three Salopian classicists have been successful with their Oxbridge applications this year, including both Ellie and Angus..

In the meantime, please see our 2011 news page.