The return from half term brought with it terrific news for four of our 6th Formers. A Music Exhibition, Sports Scholarship, Drama Scholarship and Design and Innovation Scholarship at some top senior schools really show the breadth of ability in our talented group of boys.
Angus W’s parents played a timeless joke on him when they called him downstairs in stern voices. Still trying to recount what he may have done wrong, Angus was delighted when it was all smiling faces – he’d been successful in his Drama Scholarship application to St Edward’s, Oxford! After revelling in the well earnt success for a moment, Angus called his grandparents who were similarly delighted – lasting over half an hour, the phone call involved a lot of questions and even more congratulations. Thinking back to the assessment day at Teddies, Angus recounted how surprised he and his fellow potential scholars were to enter the theatre and realise they had to perform their pieces in front of one another, as well as answer the questions on their pieces for all to hear. Ultimately, he made it out the other side successful, and in his own words he owes partial credit to Ma’am Duncan for always pushing him to perform in the school plays, Ma’am Ferdenzi for helping him through his LAMDA, and his parents for always checking in and supporting him.
It’s not every day that a boy earns a scholarship for Design and Innovation, but that is exactly the situation Connor L finds himself in ahead of his start at Charterhouse in September. The application for such a scholarship involved creating a 10-page portfolio of Connor’s best designs, in which he included everything from coding problems to Lego spike projects. Since eTEC was introduced in Caldicott (amalgamating Computing with DT and modernising the approach), Connor has noticed that the subject is much more focused on problem solving, it’s also moved with the times – we’ve gone from basic coding, to looking into AR and AI. The Charterhouse exam consisted of having a choice of three issues, in which Connor was tasked with creating three solutions for; he chose the issue of litter in the ocean and one of his ideas utilised underwater drones programmed by AI to detect litter – something that may be possible in the near future! Mr Cooper, Mr Robinson and Connor’s parents were all named as instrumental figures in his achievement. Having been with Caldicott for six years, Connor knows it will be a big change when he progresses to Charterhouse, but is excited about how big the school will be, bringing with it lots of opportunities!
With special talent at both cricket and football, George D is over the moon to be heading to Bradfield as their only sports scholar in the year (a few exhibitions were given out, but only the one scholarship)! After a full day of intense sports and fitness tests, George also had to perform well in his interview, which he thanks Mr Hutchings for taking the time to prepare him for. Since 1st Form, George has been training his football at Caldicott under the tutelage of Mr Blagden and so he also thanked him, and his own father, for all the support throughout. Bradfield will bring it with more time to train and improve his sporting abilities, which is something in particular that George looks forward to this coming September.
‘Since I started at Caldicott in 1st Form, I’ve always wanted to have my name on one of the boards, and so to have achieved one of my goals makes me feel on top of the world!’ During what Hamish L thought was any other History lesson, Mr Banks knocked on the door which sparked a flurry of excitement among his peers. After being told the good news that he was successful in earning a Music Exhibition to Oundle, he was met with plenty of pats on the backs from his classmates. Specialising in drums, piano and Music Technology, Hamish left the assessment room (which contained Oundle’s Head of Music, Head of Keyboards, and Head of Music Technology) in high spirits; he knew he’d done his best. Hamish thanked Mr Paget for pushing him to do more practice in his free time, and for encouraging him to not doubt himself. He also believes his parents were key in calming his nerves, telling him that there’s no right or wrong result and that effort is the most important thing. The prospect of moving to a senior school is an exciting one for Hamish; he looks forward most to making new friends and improving his musical talents.
