Headmaster's Extra

On Sunday 16 May I had the delightful experience of showing 16 members of the class of 1949 around their old School. I learned a lot - where the ‘whacker’ wall was (!); the location of the Head’s Study and his somewhat distinctive interviewing technique! It is always fascinating to have insights into how the School worked and its relationship with the culture of the day. My first Head as a teacher used to say that a school must have a ‘dialogue with society’. It’s not always easy to do that but it’s heartening to see the effect of a good education ’60 Years On’.

ABRSM Results of Spring Term Examinations

On Monday 23 March, 15 JLS pupils took their Spring Term ABRSM Practical Examinations in the Music School; congratulations to all boys involved and also to their instrumental teachers. Click here to see a table of results.
 

Scaling the Heights

Congratulations to Mazdak Kamyab Year 8, who has gained entry to the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music following a recent audition. This is an outstanding achievement.

Mazdak is a JLS Music Scholar and takes his piano lessons at school with Mr Chris Grey and oboe lessons outside school. He is currently working on Grade 7 piano and Grade 8 oboe for his ABRSM Practical Examinations; he also plays in the School Chamber Orchestra and Concert Band.

The Royal College of Music Junior Department (RCMJD) is a specialist term-time only Saturday school offering advanced training to musicians between the ages of 8 and 18. Students combine studying at RCMJD with their general education at their chosen week-day school. Students come together at the RCM London each Saturday for a tailor-made programme of individual instrument/voice/composition lessons, chamber music, orchestral and choral training, and general musicianship. Professional performers/composers as well as teachers offer the highest standards of tuition and coaching. To find out more about RCMJD go to:

http://www.rcm.ac.uk/Studying/Courses/RCM+Junior+Department/

The JLS Music Department offers tuition on a wide range of instruments. Please speak to Miss Wendy Constantine if your son is interested in the possibility of learning a musical instrument.
 

Summer Concert

Wednesday 6 May saw the Music Department’s annual Summer Concert being performed in the Boyd Campbell Hall. As with every year it is the opportunity for the many ensembles that rehearse each week in the Music School to perform. This year’s concert provided a huge variety of material for the audience. The concert started off with the magnificent Wednesday Wind Band who performed brilliantly. The first half of the concert was more classical in its orientation and included notable performances from the Male Voice Choir, Piano Quintet and Chamber Orchestra. It was also great to see the younger performers doing so well in the Junior Strings. The second half was geared more towards popular styles and the R n B Orchestra was particularly impressive. Worth a special mention were the ever-popular ‘The Watchmen’ who were typically outstanding. Before the final item of the concert (a rousing performance of St Thomas by the Concert Band) the boys joined together to dedicate a surprise item: You’ll Never Walk Alone to show their appreciation to David Rimmer whose last summer concert this was. The Music Department would like to thank all the boys who worked so hard and performed so well, particularly those who are leaving this year.

Continuing our Duke of Edinburgh Success

This year JLS saw the demand for the Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award increase from 34 boys to 50. Their expedition section has been a challenge for the participating boys but they are showing that 'practice makes improvements'. With their classroom planning and training in the Brecon Beacons finished and a successful unaccompanied practice in the Yorkshire Dales the boys now move forward to make preparations for their final assessment where they will undertake a 48 kilometre trek in the Derbyshire White Peaks surrounding Buxton. The photograph shows one of the teams who successfully navigated their way to the foggy peak of Ingleborough in strong winds on 15 April. Meanwhile our Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award team participated on a weekend expedition practice in the Brecon Beacons West region last month and found themselves challenged by the weight of their rucksacks, distance, terrain and changeable Welsh weather.
 

Canoe Club

Sport Report

The U13 tennis team - William Redding, Aaron Jhutti, Robert Gibbons and Hari Gardiner - have won both their Aegon tennis matches against Kingston Grammar School and JFS. The U15 squad - Bobby Gardiner, Daniel Aron, Scott Wilsher, Sukanth Yoganathan and Jamie Howells - won against JFS.

The U13 cricket team had a cliff-hanger of a game against Twyford School in the Middlesex Cup. JLS batted first and set a competitive 113 to win. Eeshan Shukla got us off to the best possible start by reducing Twyford to 3-1 in the first over! Twyford’s surviving opening bat then put on a ‘clinic’ taking his side to within 25 runs of the target. Eeshan came back for a second spell and took a hat trick, but wasn’t able to dislodge Twyford’s star man who steered his team to victory by 2 wickets.

Another successful day for JLS in the Harrow Athletic League First round with our Year 10s finishing second and Year 9s first overall out of nine teams. Wins for: Kingsley Alleyne, Year 10, at 100m and 200m; Anthony Jeffrey, Year 9, 100m and 200m (SCHOOL RECORD 200M 24.3!); Bhavesh Soneji, Year 9 1500m; Luke Roach-Christie, Year 9, Shot and Discus; Robert Ivory, Year 9, High Jump and for the Year 9 '4 x 100m' relay team.
 

Headmaster’s Extra

We have had two truly memorable events since the last Extra - the concert with the Black Dyke Band and Oklahoma! Both occasions were of the highest quality and testimony to the excellence we strive for in the School. There is much to look forward to this term as the items below show.

Kevin Riley

Physicists attend Oxford Masterclass

Upon arriving at Oxford University for the masterclass in Particle Physics, we were all assigned groups whose names were of different quarks. We then spent the day participating in lectures, practicals, and looking at computer simulations. The first lecture was very interactive, giving general information on how particle accelerators work. Many props were used to convey the ideas which led to us throwing giant beach balls around and watching some hydrogen filled balloons explode. This was followed by another lecture about the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) where we even had a video conference with scientists at CERN in Geneva. We were then given a brief talk on the Michelson Interferometer, which is an instrument used to measure the wavelength of light. We carried out an experiment to measure the wavelength of green light in which surprisingly accurate results were produced. After lunch, we headed to the computing laboratory where we were shown simulations of particle collisions, and then had the task of finding out what particles had collided to produce the different collision patterns. This gave us an example of how scientists would have to process data at CERN. Finally, we had a lecture on the ‘energy crisis’ and how we could reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. The day turned out to be very informative and although tiring, very enjoyable, opening our eyes to the very small world of subatomic particles.

Chetan Kalsi, Upper Sixth

Black Dyke Band

The John Lyon School Motet Choir performed alongside the world famous Black Dyke Band on 28 March at a specially arranged concert in the historic Harrow School Speech Room. There are currently 35 boys in the Motet Choir and its popularity within the School is growing. JLS felt that it was a tremendous privilege to have the band come and perform with our choir and it was an amazing opportunity for the boys. Anna Wilby our Director of Music, who played percussion with the band when she lived in Yorkshire, was responsible for organising the event.

To view a selection of photographs from the event, please click here.