Last term, Year 8 students took part in the Stephen Perse Year 8 Science Festival. This year’s theme was energy and students worked in groups to complete a two week project that is related to either Biology, Chemistry or Physics.

Last month three of our students, Year 11 Jemima, Year 10 Sophie and Year 8 Eleanor, represented the West Anglian Orienteering Club (WAOC) at the Yvette Baker competition, the national inter-club junior orienteering competition, where their team came joint 6th, beating their local Norfolk rivals.

Following from the death of HRH Prince Philip earlier this year, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award launched a new initiative called Do It 4 Youth, where adult volunteers take on four challenges in order to raise money to support work with young people across the UK. Volunteers choose their challenges based on the four categories; physical, upskilling, willpower and community.

Four members of Stephen Perse staff signed up as a team with a range of challenges they set themselves to do over the month of July. The team represents the breadth of different sections of the Foundation and the philanthropic thread that is so important to both staff and students.

Beth Shriever, former Teaching Assistant at Dame Bradbury’s Junior School in Saffron Walden, is to make her Olympic debut this year at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the Women’s BMX Supercross.

Earlier this week Rosedale House Year 4 set off on the moovalous Cows about Cambridge art trail, a public art event where 90 cow sculptures have been individually decorated by artists and dotted around Cambridge city.

We are delighted to see that alumna Imogen Grant, who left Stephen Perse in 2012, has been selected for the GB Rowing Team for this summer’s Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games.

We spoke to Year 12 Nadia, Co-chair of Charities for the Sixth Form Student President Team, about successfully introducing free passes to the local Cambridge Botanic Gardens for Sixth Form students.

Our 2021 Year 8 production of Beauty and the Beast feels like a particularly special achievement this year. It has taken a full 18 months to realise from start to finish but despite the unprecedented circumstances and the extraordinary challenges we have faced, we were finally able to complete the project in the last week of April 2021.

The opportunity for Year 12s to ask questions on an informal basis from those Stephen Perse graduates who are currently studying at renowned universities was particularly welcome at a recent event organised by Dr Allison Curry, Head of Guidance and Careers. Hearing from recent alumni is always highly beneficial for students in the Sixth Form as they plan the next stage of higher education and career options.