In a flurry of positive news from senior schools awarding more scholarships to our boys, today we turn the spotlight on Freddie M-J and Ryan A, who have respectively earnt Drama and Sports Scholarships at Harrow.
Freddie was eating lunch at school this week when Mr Banks and Ma’am Naidoo strode into the Dining Hall to give him the good news – he was successful in earning a scholarship to Harrow for Drama. His peers and teachers present burst into applause as he was left in disbelief before immediately phoning his mum. The application itself involved creating a portfolio, which he thanks Ma’am Duncan for helping him with, as well as an interview, a workshop and a monologue which he had to perform in front of the other aspiring scholars present. The hardest part, Freddie recounts, was the dance and choreography which he didn’t feel too confident in; however, he thinks his enthusiasm was key to his success on the day. As he looks ahead to his new life at Harrow from September, he is looking forward to taking part in lots of plays and is already eyeing up some lead roles!
Ryan’s Sports Scholarship to Harrow was met with equal parts delight and shock by Ryan; only five are given this award and his specialism was singularly in squash. According to Ryan the hardest part of his application was keeping his cool when he made a mistake; this is something that he has always struggled with and so the words of his coaches rang in his head during his day at Harrow. He managed to focus on what he did well and ultimately won all of his matches (against other potential scholars), meaning he is still Invictus for the season! One of his matches was even against a boy he had only played the other day in a school squash match. When asked who helped him reach his goal, he first mentioned his uncle in Boston, who ‘put a racquet in my hand before I could walk!’. His brother also helped him a lot, as did his parents who have driven him around to his matches and supported him throughout. He also thanked Mr Hutchings and his squash coaches for their expertise. Ryan is used to big changes, only joining Caldicott a couple of years ago when he left Boston; as he puts it, ‘it just keeps getting better and better as I go along!’.
