Taylorian

Speech Day

Feast of St Barnabas

again, we took part in the ANZAC Day Parade, providing an Honour Guard at St Paul’s Cathedral, and marching from Horse Guards Parade to the Cenotaph. In Outdoor Education, we continue to offer a breadth of activities: sailing, paddleboarding, kayaking, rowing, shooting, mountain biking, indoor climbing, and archery. Kayaking has emerged as a strength of the school, thanks to the untiring energy of our wonderful Bursar, Ian Williams. It makes a difference to individuals: Cian Omert and Reece Vecchi are now paddling on the Olympic white-water course at Lee Valley. In DofE, 70 boys successfully completed their Bronze Qualifying Expedition in the Chilterns – a two day walk with overnight camping. Five Gold Award holders attended an event hosted by the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace Gardens in May. I wonder if you have ever looked closely at the carvings and decorations on the outside of this Hall? On each side of the Hall is a series of bas-reliefs which depict images of school activities. The front of the Hall presents the extra-curricular activities that pupils could look forward to. From right to left, they show Scouts, swimming, athletics, cricket, rugby, boxing and CCF. Times have changed: we no longer offer boxing or Scouts. The good news is that we now offer quite a lot more. We have had another excellent year of sport. In rugby, we hosted an U15 7s tournament for the first time. The U14s went on a wonderful tour to Biarritz. Twenty-five boys across three year groups were selected for London Irish Development Programme. In Rugby Week, just under 1000 boys played under lights. In hockey, there were other opportunities. 33 boys went on an U13 Tour to Holland In cricket, the season is still underway, but has been tremendously exciting. At Easter, there was a Sixth Form tour to Spain. Two more are upcoming: to Dubai and the Caribbean. We are showing strength at all levels – every year group is still in their and we invited 120 pupils across 8 schools to visit for hockey training.

cup run, and the U15s are through to the last eight nationally. The 1st XI are winning their matches, with highlights including a win over Eton, and defeating Whitgift (the National Champions) by over 100 runs. An individual success came when Aaryan Sawant scored an incredible 145 not out; he is also playing 2nd team cricket for Middlesex. Of course, we also offer a host of other sports. In basketball, we have begun our first competitive fixtures for School. Table tennis and badminton clubs have started, which will lead to competitive sides next year. Our golfers reached the final of the Regional Competition and the National Finals of the English Schools’ Golf Association. Rowing has also begun to establish itself, thanks to the energies of Ms Scott and a group of dedicated young rowers. Let us now consider our academic success, prompted by another set of bas reliefs, this time on the other side of the Hall. These represent the core subjects to be studied at Merchant Taylors’. The images depict Music, Physics, English, Religious Studies, Chemistry, Biology and Design Technology. At A-Level, the pupils were awarded 76.5% A* or A grades. This was our best ever result from an exam series. As ever, there were some fantastic individual performances: 16% of our pupils achieved only A* grades; 9 boys received 4 A*s and 23 boys were awarded 3 or more A*s. The GCSE results were also a best-ever. 77.5% were awarded 8 or 9; equivalent to an A*. 93% were A* or A grades. Every pupil in the year group took Maths; only one pupil was awarded less than an A grade. Well over 2/3rds of our 148 leavers secured places at their first-choice university. Over the last five years, we have sent 58 pupils to either Oxford or Cambridge. We also had an excellent eleven offers for Medicine this year. That statistical summary of our academic success masks a host of individual successes, all of which add up to a vibrant intellectual culture. This creates a virtuous circle of learning, extension and academic

stretch. There are too many to list in full, but I will share some highlights. In the Olympiad competitions associated with Maths, the three sciences and linguistics, the School again registered outstanding success, with a gold rush of medals (as well as even more Silvers and Bronzes), including a rare Top Gold for Matt Lurie in Physics. In Computing, six students were placed at the top nationally in the Oxford University Bebras competition. They all got a perfect score. Back to the architecture: there are other carvings elsewhere in the School – you can find a series of great thinkers depicted on the outside of the library. Here are a few current students who seem to me to be similarly worthy of having their images in stone. Cormac Allen in the Divisions came runner up in the prestigious public speaking competition run by the Worshipful Company of Educators. There were yet more successes in university essay competitions: Isaac Taylor Cummings and Dayan Pindoria provided two in Geography, Hari Nolan was highly commended in the St John’s College Oxford Classics Essay Competition, Tilak Patel’s entry for the Fitzwilliam Classical Essay Prize has been highly commended and Niels Redman was also highly commended in the John Locke History Essay Prize. Jayden Thakrar in the Divisions is one of 30 winners out of 1,100 students across the UK in the Young Reporter Scheme run by Newsquest. This year’s Young Philosophers Conference was on the themes of truth and falsehood, the future and humanity. We heard from impressive guest speakers on self deception and the nature of time – Alex Paramor and Aryan Patel gave impressive responses. The final carving I shall mention, above the south end of this Hall, is an image of an owl from an Athenian silver coin called an obol. It prompts me to finish my reflections on academic success with a focus on our Economics Department. Sixth Former Dayan Pindoria was highly commended in the Young Minds Essay Competition; Veer Saluja was commended in the Immerse Essay Competition.

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Taylorian 2023