The students at Stanborough School are celebrating a record set of Year 13 results.  It has been pleasing to see a second year of increase in the results and this is a reflection of the hard work and dedication from the students and staff.

I would like to acknowledge the resilience demonstrated by our Year 13 students during this extremely difficult, challenging and exceptional period. They have embraced the situation that they were faced with and taken everything in their stride. It cannot be underestimated what they have been through but also the stress and uncertainty that they would have faced leading up to receiving their results today. I would like to congratulate every single student for their hard work, dedication and perseverance in their time with us. Our students are indeed a credit to the Stanborough community and they should be very proud of what they have achieved and who they have become in the last thirteen years of schooling. They have truly been wonderful role models to the rest of the school.

I would like to thank all staff for their unstinting support of the year group but also for the dedication and professionalism with which they approached the huge task of submitting the calculated grades for their students. I would also like to thank the Head of Sixth Form, Mr Wayne Maidment for the excellent guidance and care he has provided over the last two years.

This year’s grading system has been extremely stressful for the entire team but I am very proud that significantly fewer of the Centre Assessed Grades that we submitted were changed compared to the national figure. The Centre Assessed Grades were based on robust data including current levels of performance, previous exams taken and coursework that had already been completed and assessed. A special mention has to go to the team of leaders and support staff who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, working with examination boards to ensure that all the guidelines were followed meticulously. I would also like to acknowledge our parents who have nurtured and encouraged their children throughout their school lives. These results show that the combination of excellent teaching, the commitment of students and the support of parents is paramount to success.

At Stanborough, we are particularly pleased for the following students who have secured an impressive set of grades and in some cases made outstanding progress in the last two years.

• Andreas Andreous
• Charlotte Ball
• Mitchell Burrows
• Priya Desai
• Pia Joyce
• Lily McDonald
• Behram Printer
• Luke Sakaguchi-Mawer
• Mattia Salsi
• Lucy Thompson
• Kono Washio
• Alice Wells

Students will be off to study in a range of universities, including the Russell Group. Students will be studying a broad range of courses and degrees including Economics, Physics with Astrophysics, Psychology, Music, Computer Science, Marketing, English Literature. International Business Management, Finance and Investment Banking, Philosophy, Journalism, Law and Criminology.

We are delighted that the majority of students have secured their first choice of university or apprenticeships. We are so proud of them all. They leave us with the confidence of knowing that they can overcome unexpected obstacles and achieve whatever they aim for. On behalf of the staff and governors, we would like to wish all our Year 13 students the very best as they embark on the next chapter in their lives.

Mr R Hobson, Subject Leader: Politics, writes: 

With the General Election taking place this week, Stanborough School has also been in campaign mode. Students from our Year 12 politics class have been working in five separate campaign teams competing for votes from Stanborough staff and students in Thursday’s mock election.

The campaign kicked off last Friday with a lively debate taking place in front of an audience of Sixth Form students. Party candidates faced tough questions on a wide range of issues including NHS funding, Brexit, climate change and the housing and homelessness crisis. Labour Party candidate Josh Paul
defended his party’s position on Brexit, outlining that in his view the most sensible strategy for dealing with the Brexit impasse was to put it back to the people in a second referendum.  Unlike his party leader he was willing to admit that in such a scenario he would campaign to remain in the EU.

This admission was met with disdain from Brexit Party candidate Ollie Curtis who reiterated his commitment to a clean break Brexit and “respecting the will of the people”.  He roundly rejected accusations that his party was in fact the greatest obstacle to getting Brexit done by taking potential Conservative votes in Labour held marginal seats.

The Conservative candidate, Daniel Green, was keen to outline his party’s plans to tackle climate change and their commitment to invest in public services.  With question marks surrounding his party’s commitment to additional NHS nurses following a recent Nicky Morgan interview, he explained that the 50,000 extra nurses was based modelling the current rate at which nurses were leaving the profession.  Therefore in real terms his party’s commitment was for there to be 31,000 more nurses, as well as 19,000 retained who would otherwise have left.

The Green Party candidate, Alex Ford was keen to outline his party’s commitment to tackling the climate
emergency while outlining what he deemed to be the failed record of the Conservatives on this matter.

The Liberal Democrat candidate, Zaiynab Malik has made the case for revoking Article 50 and instead
reinvesting money into public services.

Throughout this week hustings events have taken place in front of each year group.

“Stop Brexit.  Vote to protect Britain’s future.  Vote Lib Dem”. Zaiynab Malik, Liberal Democrats.

“The Earth is at the centre of everything we want to achieve. We’re stuck between a Tory rock and a Labour hard place, and the Green Party are the alternative.” Alex Ford, Green Party.

“Brexit means brexit. Save our country’s democracy. Vote for the king. Vote Ollie Curtis” Ollie Curtis, Brexit Party.  

 “You are our priority. Our aims are your aims. It’s time for change. Vote Labour”  Josh Paul, Labour Party.

“Vote for a majority. Vote to get Brexit done. Vote Conservative” Daniel Green, Conservative Party.

Stanborough Election Update

After a fantastic week of campaigning Stanborough students and staff went to the polls last Thursday, alongside the rest of the country. The Stanborough electorate had observed debate and hustings speeches from each of the five candidates and cast their votes in tutor time.

In the end the election was in no way reflective of results in the outside world, as once votes began to be counted it became clear that the Greens and the Brexit Party would be the front runners.

Congratulations to Alex Ford of the Green Party who was victorious, winning 35% of the vote. The relatively low winning vote share is a testament to his fellow candidates each of whom claimed a significant number of votes also. Alex’s closest challenger was Ollie Curtis of the Brexit Party who took 29.6% of the vote. Labour’s Josh Paul polled at 15.1% while the Conservatives Daniel Green and Zaiynab Malik of the Liberal Democrats each polled strongly with 10.6% and 9.7% respectively.

The Greens were particularly popular amongst our younger students who voted in large numbers for Alex’s vision of an environmental revolution.

“I was very happy to see such a large amount of support for the Green Party within the school. It was my pleasure to be elected, and to see that the Stanborough students and staff have voted for the Green New Deal, protecting our environment and enhancing our economy, a second say on Brexit, and for an end to the “War on Drugs”. Thank you all very much for your support during my campaign and indeed afterwards. Together we put an end to the Brexit Party” – Alex Ford, Green Party MP for Stanborough School.

 

Mrs K Coldwell, STEM Leader: Mathematics, writes:

A group of six Year 12 students from Stanborough have been invited to take part in a six-month project run by the Engineering Development Trust. The Engineering Education Scheme links up teams of students with local companies to work on real-life, scientific, engineering and technology projects.

Josephine Clayton, Sean Davies, Charlie Earnshaw, Jack Hamer, Aaron Johnson and Jason Nwokeji attended the launch of the scheme last week and had the opportunity to meet their team mentor, a highways engineer who works for Hertfordshire County Council. They also learned about the project they will be working on which relates to electric vehicles of all varieties, from scooters to cars to trains to airplanes.

The highlight of the morning was probably the team-building exercise, though, which Stanborough won for the first time in its association with the Engineering Education Scheme. The team designed the marble

roller-coaster which kept the marble moving for the longest out of the nine teams at the launch, while keeping within the constraints of materials and time. But it was very nearly the opposite result as the marble went missing for a time during the construction and this would have resulted in disqualification if it had not been found!

Mrs C. Ramsamy, Business & Finance Leader writes:

On Wednesday 9^th October, Dominic Vallier from the London Institute of Banking presented several awards and offered a scholarship to four of our Year 13 Finance students: Priya Desai, Jack Joyce, Tatiana Lwin and Lucy Thompson. The award was for achieving outstanding summer 2019 results. I am really proud of our students and would like to take this opportunity to commend them for their hard work.

“It’s great to be recognised for the achievement of my exam performance last year. The course is practical and set up for everyday life to support with any future financial decisions I make. I would definitely recommend this course especially for students who are planning a financial career. It is an excellent course as the topics covered are so relevant for today in society which sparks lots of financial discussions in class.” Priya Desai Y13

“I was a bit shocked as I didn’t realise I got one of the top grades in the country. It was nice to be offered the opportunity to take this further through the LIBF scholarship which was offered. It’s flattering to be offered a fantastic opportunity as well as an award.” Lucy Thompson Y13