Headmaster’s Blog 14 February 2020

It has been a busy and productive half term with a great deal to celebrate and yet more to look forward to when we all return from a well-reserved break.

Our Year 11 students sat their trial examinations in January and having now received their results they know exactly what areas they need to focus on to achieve the best possible results in their GCSEs later in the year.

Some of the highlights from the past few weeks include a fantastic demonstration from the group of students who won the award for Best Designed Robot at the regional First Lego League tournament held at Cambridge University in January. The team were required to programme their robot to complete a series of missions in a race against time. They then presented their idea for green roofs in cities by designing a Lego-inspired roof tile. It really was very impressive indeed.

Our talented students received a clean sweep of Distinction grades in this year’s London College of Music (LCM) Musical Theatre exams. Year 13 student Jade Ajibola and Elizabeth Gale in Year 12 both received the DipLCM award, one of the highest performance awards on offer. The other successful students were Alexandra Wishart and Lilly Brittain in Year 11, David Bygraves, Ginger Galey and Phoebe Templeman in Year 12, and Addie Whitelaw and Jodie Tyler in Year 13. Many of these students have taken leading roles in popular BMS shows, such as the recent production of Oh What a Lovely War! and last year’s Sister Act!.

Last week we welcomed Craig Patterson to BMS to adjudicate the annual senior school music prizes. Craig is a professional trumpet player and has received several prestigious awards during his career. He regularly performs with orchestras such as the CBSO, BBC Philharmonic and English National Opera. The day showcased outstanding ability across categories including preliminary, intermediate and advanced standards for each instrument group, plus prizes for singing and composition.

In sport, five BMS students picked up an impressive 23 gold medals and 12 county trophies between them at the Bedfordshire County Swimming Championships. The stand-out performance came from Year 10 student Ben Ashdown who won eight gold medals in 50m, 100m freestyle; 100m, 200m breaststroke; 200m individual medley, as well as the mixed medley, freestyle and mixed freestyle relays. Notably he took the Junior Championship titles in all of his individual events, making him the fastest U15 swimmer in the county.

Finally I had the pleasure of awarding this year’s Robert Luff Medical Essay Scholarship to Year 12 student Laura Linley-Hill. The scholarship was established by the late OBM Robert Luff to support BMS students interested in Medicine as a career. Laura’s essay, entitled ‘What are the healthcare and wider societal implications of a possible legalisation of cannabis usage?’, was chosen by OBM Dr Hari Shanmugaratnam and her prize is a deduction of £1,000 from each of the two years of Sixth Form school fees.

BMS continues to go from strength to strength.

Alex Tate
Headmaster