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Senior News

A new Music Centre for Monkton

Plans are well underway to construct a new £2.5m Music Centre at the Senior School. £1.7m has already been secured in donations received and pledged. It is hoped that building work on this new facility will begin at Christmas and be complete and ready for use by pupils by October 2011. Visit the Monkton Foundation pages for more information and an architect’s impression of the new Music Centre.


A Level Results - hard work, good teaching and a positive learning culture.

Monkton Senior School is delighted with the results achieved today by pupils in their A level results - the result of hard work, good teaching and a positive learning culture.  "Pupils' abilities, and their efforts, have been recognised by their examiners" said Jonathan Morley, Director of Studies, who pointed to the fact that - for the fifth year in a row - over 90% of pupils in the UCAS system have had their places at their chosen universities confirmed on results day.

Monkton Senior School made the decision three years ago to withdraw from participation in the media league tables, believing that inclusion in these can distort advice and decision making in favour of the school rather than the individuals.  "Schools exist, after all, for pupils, rather than the pupils for the schools", Principal Richard Backhouse observed.  As a result, Monkton no longer publishes the league table statistics, except to parents of the pupils in the school.  Nevertheless, this year's results were the best the school has ever achieved when measured in the way used by newspapers.

"We were particularly pleased by a good spread of new the A* grade for pupils, which recognised the extra achievement of the most able pupils with a substantial proportion of our pupils obtaining these grades", Richard Backhouse commented. 

The Art Department - Summer Show 2010

Monkton Senior School Art Department celebrated the end of another successful academic year at their summer show.

The year 13 and year 11 artwork on show included their best pieces from their A2, AS and GCSE coursework.  Tim Hardisty, Head of Art praised this year’s students.

art show

“The standard of art amongst our A2 students this year has been exceptional. Every single student  secured a place on a Foundation Course at the art college of their choice and many  received multiple offers from prestigious colleges eg  Chelsea, Kingston, Bath and Camberwell.  For a small school like Monkton to be receiving this many offers to students really is a significant achievement and is testament to the hard work and creativity of the team here.”

art show

Artist in Residence Katy Ray is also exhibiting her work for the final time.    After two years in post Katy is going off to Tanzania but will continue to sell her beautiful lampshades, cushions and other pieces through her website.  www.katyray.co.uk.

katyray

More pictures from the Art Show will follow shortly.

Monkton are Cricket Champs

Congratulations to the 1st XI cricket team who after their resounding win over Beechen Cliff are now Bath Schools League Champions. Monkton scored 150 for 3 in response to Beechen's 148 all out. Fine batting performances by J Arney (68) and M Salmon (31*) and some early wickets from Paynter and Davies ensured an emphatic victory. Full match report to follow.

cricket pic

Monkton Combe School 1st XI defeated Beechen Cliff by 7 wickets last Thursday (24/6) to win the Bath School Cricket League for 2010. The strong all-round, well disciplined team was dynamically led by their captain Toby Davies and astutely coached by Mike Abington, the Master in Charge of Cricket. Beechen Cliff scored 148 for their innings, but their batsmen were always under pressure from Monkton’s key bowlers in Matt Paynter 3/21, Ben Stupples 2/27 and Davies 2/36. An opening partnership of 48 runs by James Arney and Davies set the foundation for victory. Fifteen year old Arney went onto complete a sparkling innings of 68 and was well supported by the pugnacious Mike Salmon who remained on 31 not out. For the League season fast bowler Matt Paynter was outstanding capturing 11 wickets (including a hat trick) at the miserly average of 11 runs per wicket. The mainstays of the batting were the swashbuckling Ed Vickers with 150 runs and James Arney with 143 runs. The Monkton team, having won four out of their five matches, are now assured of top spot in the Bath Schools League for the season.

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Monkton Senior School Sports Dinner – Friday 21st May

Monkton Senior School celebrated a fine year of sport on Friday evening with their annual sports dinner and awards ceremony. Team Bath and England netballer Pamela Cookey and Exeter City Manager Paul Tisdale were the guest speakers at the event which honoured the school’s top sportsmen and women.

Sports Dinner photo

Ed Vickers and Rosie Brunning were the big winners of the evening, taking the coveted Prince Kassa award for sporting excellence. Ed has been a regular in the school’s rugby, hockey and cricket 1st teams this year, Rosie is a committed rower.

Matt Paynter and Candice Bion won awards for contribution to sport whilst awards for hockey, rugby, tennis, netball, cricket and rowing were also awarded on the evening.

The guest speakers had the audience engaged throughout, Tisdale speaking on the importance of perception in sport, whilst Cookey spoke of her resilience to bounce back from two ACL injuries to represent her country.

Monkton’s Head of Sport Ros Garrod, organiser of her 16th consecutive, and her last, Monkton Sports Dinner spoke of the event “It was such a great evening. It’s so nice to recognise those who represent the school and perform to such a high level each week. We hope, as this crop of fine sportsmen and women move on to pastures new, that they will look back fondly on their time here and speak well of how Monkton gave them a good start in their sporting careers”.