BRIGHTON COLLEGE REVIEWSummer

2015

UNITED KINGDOM INDEPENDENT SCHOOL OF THE YEAR 2013–14

“Most forward thinking school in Britain” THE WEEK

University of CambridgeJack BowskillMagdalene CollegeHistoryAlvin Cham Robinson CollegeMathematicsFrancis ChenDowning CollegeEconomicsHolly CookTrinity HallClassics Max EdwardsChurchill College Modern and Medieval LanguagesRowan Hall MaudslayHomerton College Computer ScienceAdrian LamTrinity CollegeEngineering

Herman LamCorpus Christi CollegeHuman, Social and Political SciencesTimmy LeePembroke CollegeNatural SciencesHannah Marks Newnham CollegeGeographyWilliam McCorkindaleSt. John’s CollegeNatural SciencesMajid MohamedDowning CollegeLawKenneth Wong Homerton CollegeLaw

Record Oxbridge offers - again!

Twenty-nine college pupils secured offers from Oxford and Cambridge this year – matching the record set in 2014. With 18,000 applicants at each university for only 3,000 places, this is a tremendous achievement.

Another award for Brighton

The awards are piling up in the Head Master’s study. This time it was the UK Best Schools’ Award for being one of the top performing boarding schools in Britain.

University of OxfordEugene ChanEngineering ScienceSungmin ChoSomerville CollegeChemistryLaura Coppinger St. Hilda’s CollegeMusicAmy Davila Magdalen College Biomedical SciencesMatthew Faull Christ Church Biological SciencesElliott Harman Jesus CollegeSpanish and Linguistics

Phoebe Jackson St. Catherine’s CollegeFrenchCameron Lonie Corpus Christi CollegeChemistry

Alexander NormanSt. Anne’s CollegeBiomedical SciencesAnastasia Novichikhina St. Peter’s CollegeArchaeology and AnthropologyMaksym Petyak St. Anne’s CollegeComputer Science

Sadie RobertsonUniversity CollegePPELouis SkinnerWadham College ChemistryIsabella SoamesHistoryJack WittHertford CollegeEconomics and ManagementSiu Ying WongSomerville CollegeChemistry

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Named “Britain’s top-performing major private school” by the Daily Telegraph, Brighton has again achieved the best grades at A-Level and GCSE of any co-educational school in the country. Brighton continues to outperform other independent schools in Sussex (single sex and co-ed) by a wide margin, with our GCSE and A-Level results comfortably the best in the county. In the highly regarded Sunday Times’ Parent Power rankings, we continue to be the only Sussex school listed in the Top 100 (in fact, we’re 99 places above the next Sussex school), which illustrates just how hard-working and talented our pupils and staff are. Congratulations to all of them for another excellent academic year.

We all know that a community that educates boys and girls together is one that prepares children for real life. We also believe very strongly that there is much less bullying, unpleasantness and emotional intensity in an environment where boys and girls mix happily. And it is now becoming clear that segregating girls from boys doesn’t even make any academic difference.

When we compared our girls’ results against the most selective girls’ schools in Britain, this is what we found:

Source: Girls’ schools’ data taken from Sunday Times’ Parent Power rankings 2014. Some schools also offer the IB and may have chosen to have these data included in their A-Level rankings.

Girls’ A-Level results 2014Brighton College and the Sunday Times’ top 20 Girls’ Schools

School A*– B Grades

Wycombe Abbey School 99.3%

St. Paul’s Girls’ School 98.9%

North London Collegiate School 97.7%

Brighton College – girls’ data only 97.3%

Guildford High School for Girls 97.1%

Godolphin and Latymer 96.6%

The Lady Eleanor Holles School 96.1%

City of London School for Girls 95.9%

Withington Girls’ School 95.7%

Oxford High School GDST 95.3%

St. Mary’s School, Ascot 94.6%

Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls 94.5%

Manchester High School for Girls 94.5%

The Abbey School, Reading 94.3%

St. Helen and St. Katharine 93.5%

St. Swithun’s School 93.3%

James Allen’s Girls’ School 93.2%

Cheltenham Ladies’ College 92.2%

Channing School 91.9%

Notting Hill and Ealing High School GDST 91.8%

St. Albans High School for Girls 91.2%

The UK’s top co-educational school at GCSE and A-Level

Girls do better at (this) co-ed school

Top 300 Independent Sussex Schools 2014

Position School

24 Brighton College

123= Burgess Hill School for Girls

125 St. Leonards-Mayfield School

130= Christ’s Hospital

144 Roedean School

170= Eastbourne College

182 Brighton & Hove High School

190 Ardingly College

212= Lancing College

256= Worth School

Source: Sunday Times’ Parent Power ranking based on 2014 GCSE and A-Level results.

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We are very pleased to announce the opening of our third international school: Brighton College Bangkok. The new school will launch in 2016 and will serve 3-18 year olds in a purpose-built, modern and well-equipped 16 acre campus.

Music School openingPlans are well underway for our official opening ceremony for the new Music School and Recital Hall, which will be ready for the Michaelmas Term. There’s still time to put your name on a seat in the Recital Hall: please contact the Development office on 01273 704226 for more details.

New Tower unveiledA vision realised

After a delay of a mere 127 years, we celebrated the opening of the new Cairns Tower, named by Lord Skidelsky in honour of the Head Master. The new structure extends seamlessly from the old and is now a highly visible Brighton landmark. It’s a beautiful building, which in true Brighton College style blends traditional with contemporary to great effect. The tower has attracted widespread praise from RIBA and other architecture professionals, and is a wonderful statement of the college’s new found self-confidence.

NEWS

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Lingua Latina omnibus!Brighton College’s Sixth Formers were recently featured on ITV’s Meridian news for their work teaching Latin to local primary school pupils. The innovative programme was designed by Classics teacher Olivia Upchurch, to encourage interest in the language and to give our pupils first-hand experience of teaching.

Charity in style

This year’s movie-themed fashion show by Fenwick House raised over £1,600 for charity. Well done to all involved.

Fundraising for AfricaOur talented Fourth Formers raised nearly £7,000 for African charity HOPEHIV in our inaugural social enterprise project, in which every pupil was given £10 and ten weeks to make as much money as possible. Among many creative initiatives, Phoebe Mayhew recycled old car tyres to keep boats dry through the winter, Jessica Olliver and Jessica Guy created a pop-up restaurant, and Callum Williams made a ten-fold return by crafting wooden reindeers for Christmas.

Duke of Edinburgh

More pupils than ever before have achieved Duke of Edinburgh Awards this year, with 95 pupils receiving either gold, silver or bronze so far - congratulations to everyone!

Among the many innovative ideas featured in our annual Lower Sixth House Entrepreneurship competition, the three winners of £10,000 were Chichester’s music app Wavelength, Hampden’s AccioJobs website and Seldon's Changelet bracelet alarm, with 25% of profits earmarked for domestic violence charities. Congratulations to all the finalists.

Entrepreneurship winners

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Checkmate!English chess grandmaster Nigel Short, MBE, visited Brighton in February and played 21 local chess juniors simultaneously, including five pupils from Brighton Prep and Brighton College. According to Lucas Renshaw (Upper Fifth), who Short beat last: “It was really exciting to be playing someone like Mr Short, and it inspired me to play an opening I had never played before. It was just such a privilege!”

Pre-season tour to Real Madrid“An incredible experience”

The U16 and U15 footballers enjoyed a fantastic pre-season tour in Spain, training at Real Madrid’s world renowned Valdebebas training ground and playing a friendly fixture against a local U17 side. They were given a tour of Real’s legendary Bernabeu stadium and Atletico Madrid’s Vicente Calderon stadium, and spent their final evening watching Atletico Madrid vs Villarreal.

Leadership award

To commemorate the 147 young men from Brighton College who gave their lives during the Great War, Fourth Form pupils and their families have embarked on a unique project, each researching the life of one of the 147 Old Brightonians on the Roll of Honour. The project will culminate in a memorial statue to be unveiled in 2016. Learn more about the project online at www.brightoncollegeremembers.com.

EVENTS

Brighton College was awarded Senior Leadership Team of the Year at the prestigious Independent Schools’ Awards. The judges talked of the transformation of Brighton College by the most talented people in education and praised the Head Master’s ability to ‘recruit the very best’.

Remembering the 147India’s speech at 11 Downing Street

Lower Fifth pupil India Gale gave a moving and inspirational speech at the Changing Faces charity function at 11 Downing Street, hosted by the Rt. Hon. Danny Alexander, MP.

Changing Faces

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Brighton boys welcome the World CupBrighton College will host the Japan team ahead of the Rugby World Cup in September 2015, and our 1st XV and U14A teams helped launch the city’s countdown to the event at the end of 2014.

Miles Dibsdall (Upper Sixth) was lucky enough to get up close with the trophy in the grounds of the Royal Pavilion as a RFU Young Rugby Ambassador.

Home...

...and away“A fantastic week”

Skiing in the French Alps: Les Menuires

Sixth Form USA Trip: Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York

Lower and Upper Fifth China Trip: Beijing, The Great Wall, The Forbidden City

Meeting Sir Harold Evans at

the New York Daily News

“Spectacular and fascinating”

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SPORT

U15 reach semi-finals of Natwest CupThe U15A rugby team became the first Sussex side to reach the semi-finals of the prestigious Natwest Cup. Congratulations to the whole squad for such a sterling effort. Our U14A side also played magnificently to reach the Sussex Cup final.

Toby breaks British 200m recordToby Harries (Upper Fifth) set a new national U17 200m record of just 21.46 seconds at the British Indoor Athletics Championships. He also took home the bronze medal in the 60m. An amazing achievement for the talented Toby who now plays for the 1st XV, and was picked for the London South East U16 team!

Brighton runs to victory in cross countryFour Brighton College teams took home titles at the Sussex Schools Cross Country Championships: the Senior Girls, Intermediate Boys and Girls, and the Junior Boys. Tomer Tarragano (Fourth Form) took the bronze medal and qualified for the Sussex team in the prestigious English Schools Championship, where he helped the Sussex team achieve third place overall. Tomer was joined by Brodie Denholm (Upper Fifth) who was the first Sussex runner home for the Inter Boys, and Amy Davila (Upper Sixth) who was the fourth runner home in her team for the Senior Girls.

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Brighton College 1st XV continued their incredible run of wins, remaining unbeaten against all opponents throughout Sussex and Hampshire for an eighth consecutive year.

1st XV unbeaten in the region for an eighth year

U16 Sevens team crowned national championsOur magnificent U16 Sevens team stormed to victory against Wellington in the All England Sevens Championship, following a string of convincing wins in the tournament. Many congratulations to our national champions!

More Sevens successThe U15 team have had a great season, winning both the Sussex Sevens, and the regional John Fisher Sevens in convincing style. Our 1st VII narrowly lost out to Wellington in the final of the Reigate Sevens, where Loewy Simmons was named as second best player of the tournament.

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England cricketers make their markWorld Cup and 6 Nations winner

Old Brightonians in the news

James Chisholm (Durnford, 2011-13) has enjoyed incredible rugby success as part of the U20 England team which won the 6 Nations in March, when he was awarded Man of the Match in the final. James has also been named as one of the ‘Players to Watch in 2015’ by Rugby World Magazine following his performance on the England team in 2014 which won the Junior World Championship title. In a rare triple, James and his brothers Ali (Durnford, 2009-11) and Ross (Durnford, 2007-09) all played in the same Harlequins A team, alongside fellow Old Brightonian Jordan Turner-Hall (Hampden, 2002-05) at The Stoop in October.

Sarah Taylor (Chichester, 2002-07) and Laura Marsh (Fenwick, 2000-05), played for England on their tour of New Zealand in the ICC Women’s Championships. England won the one-day series 3-2 and the T20 International series. In the final one-day game Sarah was the top scorer with 93 runs. Sarah was awarded the title Women’s Cricketer of the Year in November by the ICC, the third year in a row she has been recognised at the award ceremonies.

Clean sweep at footballThe talented futsal team won the annual 5-a-side tournament at Sevenoaks, winning all seven of their fixtures. Meanwhile, Brighton footballers performed well throughout the Sussex and Kent Independent League which saw nearly every team finish in the top three. Congratulations to the U14A team who took home the trophy, and to the 1st XI and U14B who were runners-up.

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Congratulations to Lower Third pupils Jessica White and Sophie Shaw who have both gained places in the Sussex U13 hockey squad.

County selection

Sussex Cup and SISNA winnersOur 1st VII and U15 teams were Sussex Cup winners for their age groups, with the U16, U14 and U12 netball teams all named worthy runners-up. Our 1st VII and U14 netballers both won the Sussex Independent Schools Netball tournament, with the U15 and U16 teams named runners-up. An incredible set of results for all our teams – well done!

The 1st VII stormed through to a stunning victory in the semi-final of the Independent Schools Netball Cup, before meeting tough opposition in Millfield at the cup final. The girls displayed some fantastic performances to finish as worthy runners-up in this national competition.

National finalists

National Schools regional championsThe U14A netball team were crowned National Schools regional champions, winning or drawing all eight of their matches on finals' day. Congratulations to the team!

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Over 200 college musicians took part in the Autumn Concert with a wonderfully varied programme, including performances from the Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band and Swing Band, Guitar Ensemble, Flute Quartet, Saxophone Ensemble, Brass Group and Chamber Choir.

The ever-popular House Song competition was held at Brighton’s Dome for the first time, a venue worthy of the glamour and glitz of the competition itself ! Every pupil performed on stage within their houses; Aldrich were judged the worthy winners with a fabulous rendition of September.

THE ARTS

Performed on traverse staging with multimedia projections and costumes on a ‘1960s meets Alice in Wonderland’ theme, Memoirs of a Madman was a funny, disturbing and accomplished piece of theatre. A superb ensemble cast drew the audience into the spiralling descent to madness of minor civil servant, Posworth. Special mention must go to Sixth Formers Caidraic Heffernan as Posworth’s Ego, and to Lucy Grant and Issy Rayner who played Posworth’s Superego and Id respectively.

Brighton College hosted the ProCorda National Chamber Music competition, in which two of our groups, the U19 Cello and Jazz Piano Trio and the Prep School’s U12 String Quintet progressed through to the winners’ concert in May. Congratulations to all who took part, including all nine Brighton College semi-finalists – a truly impressive performance!

Autumn Concert in the Great Hall

House Song win for Aldrich

National Chamber Music competition

Memoirs of a Madman

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Theatre Royal sells out

Spectacular Strictly

Once again, our annual performing arts showcase at the Theatre Royal celebrated highlights of this year’s dance, music and drama performances. A wise-cracking Scouse monologue, a West End-worthy version of Putting On The Ritz and a mesmerising slice of Gogol drama were just some of the fabulous performances enjoyed by a packed house of parents, pupils and friends in February.

Our talented Sixth Formers delivered another amazing evening of dance at the Strictly Come Dancing final in March, where a closely fought and very entertaining contest was won by James Duprey and Amie Tyrer, with Archie Driver and Emily Nicholas worthy runners-up. A new trophy donated by the Lawrence family was awarded to Ethan Nott and Bel O Nunain as ‘most entertaining couple’.

Exploring religion, death and relationships, Under Milk Wood was energetically and sympathetically performed by a cast of Fourth Form and Lower Fifth pupils in the Great Hall.

Under Milk Wood

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INDIVIDUAL SUCCESSES

Toby Lewis (Upper Fifth) qualified as one of the youngest athletes for the Team GB U20 squad for the European Duathlon Championships. Toby won his age group category in a Team GB qualifying race, completing a 5km run, 20km bike, and a further 5km run.

Amy Davila (Upper Sixth) was awarded a Gold CREST award (CREativity in Science and Technology), for her project entitled Resveratrol, UV and SERT1, after winning a Nuffield Research Placement over the summer.

Joe Selby (Lower Sixth) has been awarded a much sought-after winner’s prize for the Christ’s College History essay competition with his piece titled Is the principal task of the historian to tell the truth? This was a remarkable achievement in a highly competitive field.

Three pupils fêted at the Royal SocietyUpper Sixth Formers Louis Skinner, William McCorkindale and Siu Ying Wong, were invited to the Royal Society in recognition of achieving a Roentgenium Award in the 2014 Cambridge Chemistry Challenge – finishing in the top 1% of all 6,886 entrants. All three have been offered places at Oxford or Cambridge for 2015: Louis and Siu Ying to study Chemistry at Oxford, and William to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge. Many congratulations to them all.

Amy wins CREST science award

Joe wins Cambridge essay prize

Toby reaches European Duathlon Championships

Sabrina outstanding at music festivalSabrina Taylor (Lower Fifth), achieved first place for both of the piano classes she entered at the Mid Sussex Competitive Music Festival, being awarded ‘Outstanding Performance’ for each.

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James dances for EnglandJames Duprey (Upper Sixth) was recently selected to represent England at the Dance World Cup, where he will compete in the Boys Modern Dance Solo. An incredible achievement from a field of 18,000 dancers! We wish him the very best of luck.

Brighton College’s Head Chorister, Amelia Craddock (Upper Sixth) has been awarded the Diploma of the London College of Music in Singing, indicating the standard of a first or second year of a music degree. Amelia also sang a solo live on BBC One as part of the broadcast of Midnight Mass from Arundel Cathedral on Christmas Eve.

Amelia awarded Diploma, sings live on the BBC

Congratulations to William McCorkindale (Upper Sixth) who has secured a place competing at the International Physics Olympiad for the United Kingdom team – for a second consecutive year! We wish William the best of luck during his preparations before he travels to Mumbai to compete in the international finals in July. Congratulations also go to fellow Upper Sixth pupils Adrian Lam who performed well to reach Round 2 of the Physics Olympiad, Sungmin Cho and Classy Fan who made it through to Round 2 in the Biology Olympiad, and to Timothy Xu who made Round 2 in the Mathematics Olympiad. Finally, in the Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad, William McCorkindale made it through to Round 2, as did Timmy Lee, Louis Skinner and Siu Ying Wong. Many congratulations to all.

National Olympiad triumph – for a second year running

National art prize

Roop Singh Virk (Fourth Form) was awarded the runner-up prize for his work Man with a Sword in a national art competition, Never Such Innocence, held to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of WWI. The judges were “moved to tears” by Roop’s entry which they described as “technically and artistically excellent.”

Oliver Jagger (Lower Sixth) has been awarded a prestigious Arkwright Scholarship for his GCSE Design Technology work. Oliver had to pass the Arkwright Aptitude paper and present his design to an industry interview panel.

Engineering Scholarship for Oliver

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Debaters make Brighton College historyCollege debaters secured places at both the Oxford AND Cambridge national debating finals for the first time ever. Max Edwards (Upper Sixth) and Rachel O Nunain (Lower Sixth) won through to the Cambridge finals.

Max will also compete at the Oxford Schools final with Oliver Winters (Lower Sixth), making this the third consecutive year that Brighton College pupils have reached these finals.

Beth at Dance Proms

Upper Sixth dance scholar Beth Connellan performed at the Dance Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in November as one of 30 acts from all over the world. Beth's ballet troupe danced Masquerade in the round to a packed audience.

Annabel Kidd (Upper Sixth) has been offered places to study at three of the country’s leading conservatoires: The Royal Scottish Conservatoire, Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Annabel achieves three conservatoire offers

Tom Stone (Upper Third) has been awarded a place in the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain, the premier symphony orchestra for children up to the age of 14, as an Associate of the Regional Orchestra in London. Euan Clark and Oliver Champness (both Upper Fifth) were both awarded places in the training choir of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.

Young musicians

Four pupils have been selected for the prestigious Harlequins Elite Player Development Group. 1st XV captain Sean Richardson and teammate Loewy Simmons joined the U18 programme, whilst Marcus Smith and British U17 200m record holder Toby Harries joined the U16 programme.

Elite players

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PREP SCHOOL

Good enough to eat!Year 7 have been using our newly-acquired kiln to create colourful sculptures based on cakes. The project involved the pupils creating oil pastel paintings of real cakes, and then making the cakes in clay and glazing them on real plates. A very unusual technique and project that sums up the often experimental and fun nature of the work that goes on in the Prep School Art Room!

The senior musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie was a great success, with outstanding performances from Macy Young (Year 8) as the headstrong Millie and Stanley Pratt (Year 8) as the hapless boy who finally wins her affections. The Year 7 supporting cast were fantastic and the 1920s’ inspired score and energetic dancers were hugely popular.

It has been a remarkable few months for Year 8 pupil Leo Brewer, our cross country champion, who finished 10th in the South of England inter-counties event, came 2nd in the college U14 team in the Knole run at Sevenoaks, and 6th overall at the annual South of England Athletics Association Cross Country Championships. Leo also won a gold medal for the College as the fastest Junior at the recent Wellington Cross Country Relays. Congratulations!

Cross country star in the making

Thoroughly Successful Millie

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Creativity Day

The Prep and Pre-Prep schools’ inaugural Creativity Day took place in March based on the theme of flight and was a tremendous success! The children came together to share ideas and learn from each other across a wide range of activities, including Gymnastics, Drama, Home Economics, Games, DT, storytelling and more.

Townsend Warner history competition

Tomas Kennedy-Martin (Year 8) and Oliver Withers (Year 7) both qualified for the second round of this prestigious prep school competition, with Tomas making it into the top 10. Who knows, they may even match Mr Cairns, who came 2nd in this competition when he was at prep school!

BCPSA Christmas fair raises record totalOur Christmas Fair raised a record £15,500 for our charities and school during a truly magical day with our first ever live auction, an outdoor cafe, Winter BBQ, parent craft stall, Year 8 stalls, Tree of Goodwill and Santa’s grotto. Thanks to your generosity, we are supporting the Garden Route Children’s Trust in South Africa which feeds malnourished children, and local charities Facial Palsy UK which supports people affected by facial paralysis, Whoopsadaisy which helps children with physical disabilities and the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital charity, Rockinghorse.

Individual & team successA special mention must go to our unbeaten U9 netball team and our U12 netball team who only lost one game all season, and to our dancers Macy Young and Laura Maryakhina (both Year 8) who were selected for the Royal Academy of Dance's South East finals in May. Well done!

“ Working with people from different year groups led to some very creative ideas.” Jed Vine – Year 6

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Creativity Day PRE-PREP SCHOOL

Gorgeous Gamelan

Pupils had a rare opportunity to try their hand at this Balinese tradition, playing beautiful red and gold painted instruments that were hand built in Bali and shipped to England. The children had the chance to play a mixture of gongs and metallophones, and learnt a series of pitched, rhythmical patterns, including one from the traditional ‘rabbit’ or ‘kalinchi’ dance.

Fire! Fire!

Reception had a special visit from the fire brigade and had great fun testing out all of the equipment.

Scootability

The Year 2 children have started a short scootability course, run by Brighton and Hove City Council, which teaches children how to stay safe.

Undefeated!Every boy in Year 3 played in a football or rugby match this season. All four teams remained undefeated and most importantly showed excellent sportsmanship throughout. Well done to all.

Parents’ Mandarin workshop

The library was filled with some rather large pupils when Mr Jones ran a special Mandarin workshop for parents. The “pupils” learned about why Mandarin was taught and how.

Green Week

Pupils were challenged to design and make their own item of clothing out of recycled materials. They shared their creations with the school in a special fashion show.

National Writing Competition

Congratulations to the many Year 1 pupils who have had their poems chosen for publication in ‘My First Acrostic—Southern England’. The children entered the Young Writers’ National Writing Competition which introduces younger pupils to poetry and helps them create their own original acrostic. We are incredibly proud of their achievements.

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BRIGHTON COLLEGE

01273 704201registrar@brightoncollege.netwww.brightoncollege.org.uk

“Kind, tolerant, modern” TATLER

“ Britain’s top-performing major private school” DAILY TELEGRAPH

• Extensive bus routes across Sussex • Day, weekly and full boarding

Open MorningsCollege (11+, 13+, 16+) Saturday 26th September, 2015 9.30am – 12.00pm

Pre-Prep and Prep (3+ to 10+) Saturday 3rd October, 2015 9.00am – 1.00pm

Sixth Form Saturday 17th October, 2015 9.30am – 12.00pm