December 2005


Dear Parents,

By the time you receive this newsletter the fast paced Autumn Term will be over. Much activity has been taking place both inside and outside the classroom. Your sons have involved themselves as wholeheartedly as usual, supported as always by the unstinting help of my colleagues. This is the essence of what Habs is about: opportunities for all and outstanding achievement.

I must pick out from the wealth of these activities the sustained commitment shown by the school sports teams, who have battled bravely throughout the season, the superb Autumn Concert in which so many boys took part and the wonderful main school play the Ticket-of-Leave Man which brought such joy to all who were involved and who saw it. Finally the term came to a moving conclusion with a fine Carol Service at St Albans Abbey - the last such occasion to be presided over by our much loved School Chaplain, Revd. David Lindsay.

Many of you kindly filled in a Parental Survey in the Summer term. Its aim was to provide us with essential feedback on your experiences of many aspects of school life and thereby to inform our next school development plan. The response was most heart-warming. During the remainder of this school year I shall be holding a number of meetings with parents and others to explore some of the issues raised in the survey. One thing is clear. There is a general desire for greater and improved communication between school and home.

As you know, a team from the Independent Schools Inspectorate was at the school from 17th - 21st October 2005. This was both a valuable and an affirming experience. It will also help to inform our future school development planning. The official report will become public during the course of the Spring Term and will endorse the many initiatives we have taken since the last Inspection.

It has been a great pleasure to meet so many of you at the various Parents' Evenings, plays, concerts and matches that have taken place and I would very much like to thank you for continuing to support these activities.

I wish you all a refreshing Christmas break and a Happy New Year.

Yours sincerely



Peter Hamilton
Headmaster


EXAMINATION RESULTS SUMMER 2005

Parents will see from the detailed results in the Annual Report for Commendation 2005 enclosed with this letter that last summer we again enjoyed exceptionally good results in the public examinations.

At Advanced Level the boys again produced fine results; 72.8% grades A and 94.0% grades A+B - our best ever. At GCSE, the %A* grades was 53.9%, our best ever result, and the %A*+A was 86.5%.

Although results in the AS examinations taken by last year's Lower 6th will not be certificated until next summer, they also performed very well achieving 72% A grade equivalents and 91.9% A+B.

STAFF NEWS

Mr Mark Taylor joined Habs in September 2002 having taught at Willingdon School, Eastbourne and the International School of Oporto. He leaves us to become second in the Mathematics Department at South Hampstead High School. He has been involved in cross-country, scuba diving, athletics and the CCF. We say goodbye to a valued colleague and wish him every success as new horizons open up.

Mr Wai-Shun Lau joined the school in September 2002 having taught at King Edward VI School, Birmingham since 1998. He has been heavily involved in the administration of examinations and leaves Habs to take up a post as Head of Chemistry at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. We wish him every success in the future.

Mr Mark Leslie joined us from Glenwood High School in Durban, South Africa and returns home from Habs after an excellent year as a Gap year student in the PE Department. His successor from Glenwood will be Mr Jerrard Chetty who arrives in January 2006.

Berta Broncano has been appointed as Temporary Spanish Teacher and will be joining us with effect from 7th November 2005, until May 2006, providing maternity cover for Rosa Anna Martinez. Berta completed her Masters in Applied Language and New Technologies at the University of Hull and has held various teaching positions, more recently as Head of Department at Bradfield College.

Mr Julian Hails has been appointed as a Mathematics Teacher, replacing Mark Taylor, and will be joining us with effect from 1st January 2006. He completed his Degree in Mathematics at the University of Surrey and joins us from Sir John Lawes School in Harpenden. Julian was a professional footballer with Fulham Football Club from 1990 to 1994 then with Southend United Football Club from 1994 to 2000 before completing his PGCE from the University of Hertfordshire in 2001.

Dr Simon Pyburn has been appointed to teach Chemistry from January 2006. He joins as from the Collegio Columbo Britanico where he was Head of Science.

Miss Deborah Rivlin joins us as Head of Junior School in January from QE Barnet, where she teaches History and is currently a Head of Year.

Liz Tomlin, is retiring at the end of 2005. Mrs Ruth Mansi has been appointed Personal Assistant to the Bursar and will start taking over from Liz on Monday, 5 December. Liz will not be lost to us in the short term as she has agreed to provide secretarial cover in the Music School for the Spring Term in the absence of Ruju Nathwani.

Mr Ron Tevendale is also retiring and his replacement as Reprographics Supervisor will be Miss Susan Scripture, who will be commencing work in the New Year.

Mrs Sharon Sacofsky will assume the post of Work Experience Officer in January and joins us from Mill Hill County School.


PARENTS' SOCIAL COMMITTEE

As always, our thanks go to the Parents' Social Committee for the tremendous work they do in support of the school. In addition to regularly organising and serving interval refreshments at concerts and plays, and presenting flower arrangements every week in Aldenham House, they organised the Headmaster's, Parents' and Staff Dinner Dance. This was a magnificent occasion attended by 193 people who thoroughly enjoyed a good live band, excellent food and wine in a beautifully decorated Bourne Hall. I am most grateful to the organisers for the enormous amount of time and effort that went into making this a night to remember. The Committee hope to arrange something similar next year; apply early to ensure tickets!

May I also thank all those members who organised the serving of food and drink at the Year 7 and Year 9 Social Evenings in November. They helped create a friendly and cordial atmosphere.


Yours sincerely,



Peter Hamilton
Headmaster


SCHOOL NEWS AND NEWS FROM THE DEPARTMENTS

Art

Trip to Italy
This year's Art trip was to Northern Italy, with our party of 28 boys and 3 staff based in Riva del Garda.
Over the five days we visited the towns of Bergamo, Mantova, Milan, Padova, Verona, and Vicenza.
We were privileged to be able to visit the Capello del Scrivegni in Padova which is decorated with frescoes
by Giotto. These date from the 13th Century. In Mantova we visited the Palazzo Ducale, a spectacular
and rambling castle which is made up of over five hundred rooms! We saw some wonderful examples of the work of Mantegna here.
Verona gave us the opportunity to visit the Roman amphitheatre, one of the largest in Europe and to take
in the sights and sounds of the Piazza Bra.
Our final day included a boat trip on Lake Garda and we enjoyed stunning scenery in glorious weather. A fitting end to what was a memorable week abroad.

Art Exhibition
This term saw the Sixth Families Art Exhibition in the Bourne Exhibition area. It was once again another great success, well over 50 exhibits from members of the 'HABS Family', pupils, staff, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters etc. The highlight of the show was probably the carvings and sculptures by Mr Gerolemou (father of Alexi 10H2 and Demetri 8H). His work was then flown to New York for a show later in the term! The real strength of the show was the wide variety of subject matter, media and age range of those taking part! The Art staff would like to thank all those who took part.

Art Lecture
Professor Anthony Slinn once again visited the school and gave an excellent lecture on the life and work of the famous Yorkshire man who lived in Hertfordshire! Henry Moore. At least 80 pupils, staff and parents packed the Aske Hall to be entertained by Professor Slinn's unique style and presentation.

SCS Renaissance Art Group
During Field Day a small group from school travelled to London to experience a flight on the London Eye before moving onto the Tate Modern to view the Artwork on display. A great deal of visual information was available for the pupils to use in their Art coursework.

Art Trip to The National Gallery and The National Portrait Gallery
Early in October the Art department organised a trip to London for GCSE and A Level students to gather relevant critical and Historical visual information for their Art coursework. About 50 pupils with sketch books in hand enjoyed the permanent exhibitions at both galleries, drawing and taking notes in front of real art work by the great masters. A real inspiration to them all.

Design Technology

The Design and Technology department held a very successful exhibition during the week of Monday 14th November. All of last year's AS and GCSE coursework was on display.

A Private View was held for parents and boys on the evening of Tuesday 15th November, which was very well attended and proved to be a very convivial and enjoyable occasion.

Congratulations to the following boys who received special design and innovation awards for their projects:

Barnaby Sich (U6J1) for his Mountain Board.
Akhil Bakhda (11S3) for his perfume point of sale display.
Preeyan Shah (11M1) for his card shuffler.
Sam Pinner (11R2) for his virtual reality simulation game.
Matthew Slavin (11C3) for his light and storage unit for hikers.
Neil Joseph (11J2) for his editing of the project photographs in this years Skylark.

Drama

The Drama department has been busier than ever this term. We have played host to the Trestle Theatre Company for four workshop sessions enabling all boys studying drama to benefit from their expertise in the field of mask theatre. 30 members of the 6th form have made over eight trips to the theatre beginning with the exuberant and wildly Artaudian 'Circus Immortal' performed in a big top by Tower Bridge and ending finally with a second visit to see the National Theatre's production of 'Amato Saltone' under London Bridge (a theme here!). The first performance we attended ended prematurely due after a power cut much to the amusement of the theatre appreciation group who presumed this was all part of the show!

Theatre visits for boys studying GCSE drama have included 'Journey's End' and 'What The Butler Saw' but the main focus of the Department in the second half of term was as ever at this time of year the Senior Play. 'The Ticket-Of-Leave Man', an authentic 19th Century melodrama, was an unprecedented choice for Haberdashers' but proved to be quite literally a 'roaring success'. The production involved 30 boys, a dozen girls from the Girls' School and five spectacular settings, but the chief ingredient this year was the participation of the audience who were required to sing, boo, hiss and cheer! It was a testament to all concerned that the cast were able to whip their audience into an excited and very vocal frenzy at the end of each and every performance. The play is fiendishly difficult and demanding to rehearse and produce but all seemed effortless, joyous fun to us watching from the front. A magnificent achievement!

Special mention must be made of Nick Collins, Adam Nathan, Adam Phillips, Ed Sayer and Jo Stolerman who were all performing for the last time in a school production. All five we thank for their extraordinarily professional and entertaining performances this year and for their talented contributions to school drama in so many previous plays. They will be much missed. May they continue to delight audiences at University and beyond!

Economics and Politics

This has been a very active term for the Department of Economics and Politics. It has a record number of Lower 6th Economics pupils (87) and of Politics pupils (16), plus a record number of Upper 6th pupils applying to Oxford and Cambridge to study Economics or Politics or related subjects (22). We wish them the best of luck at interview.

The Economics Society published its long-awaited flagship magazine, mysteriously called 'The Key', but containing articles written by Sixth Formers; articles of such a high quality that the Admissions Tutor at Christ's College, demanded a copy from one of the authors who was in Cambridge for interview.

The Politics Society held a very successful debate by the 'two Davids', but could not decide which one had more content than form, a problem that might vex the Conservative Party for some years to come.

During the Half Term Holiday Jason Taitz and Sajan Shah enjoyed a week's work experience in the House of Commons, thanks to the kindness and generosity of Keith Vaz M.P.

Mr. Trinder is supervising four Young Enterprise teams (some 80 L6 pupils). At the start of term our team of U6 pupils again won the Regional Round of the Ogden Trust's Schools Business Competition, so he is again taking them to the National Final, to be held in St. Catherine's College, Cambridge.

Similarly, at the start of term our team (jointly with the Girls' School) won the UK round of the European Youth Parliament held in Durham, and Mr. Reid is looking forward to chaperoning the team to the prestigious international session to be held in Paris next term, when President Chirac is expected to open proceedings in the Senate.

Just two weeks ago our team overcame very strong opposition (including the Girls' School) to win the first round of the Bank of England's '2.0' Interest Rate Challenge. Guided by Mrs. Shah, the team had worked hard, and were unperturbed when the European Central Bank raised Euro rates on the day of the competition.

On the self-same day, Mr. Briercliffe took the Upper 6th and Lower 6th Politics Sets to a conference in London, at which they heard amusing and informative speeches from Boris Johnson, Clare Short and Ann Widdecombe, amongst others. Some members of the Sets then visited the House of Commons.

Our pupils have benefited from presentations given by outside speakers. Mr. Ian Harnett used his manifest expertise to help prepare the '2.0' team. Mr. Terry Arthur gave a thought-provoking talk on Keynes to our three Oxbridge sets. Subha Bhattacharya returned to address U6 and L6 pupils on applying to and working with PWC. Ali Kazmi took time out from Deutsche Bank to speak on careers in merchant banking. We are grateful to all four.

The Habs' Boys' team won the first round of the Bank of England Interest Rate competition and were clear winners. We beat off some stiff competition from North London Collegiate and Habs' Girls', amongst others and now go forward to the second round in February.
The team comprised:

Daniel Susskind L6J2
Praneet Shah L6H1
Anish Acharya L6C2
Sajan Shah L6J1

We were on the Bank's website: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/news/2005/157.htm and in The Times.

Mathematics

On the weekend prior to the start of term, Messrs Whittaker, Hyde and Tarpey organised a very successful Mathematics Problem Solving Conference for the Upper 6th Further Mathematics students. The event took place at the Crown Hotel in Paddington (courtesy of Mr K D Shah, parent of an OH) and the boys spent an enjoyable weekend doing battle with hard sums.

The UK Senior Mathematics Challenge took place on 8th November. An unprecedented number of boys (207 in total) entered. The results were equally impressive: 45 Gold, 63 Silver and 59 Bronze certificates. Particular congratulations go to Philip Maton (U6H1) who scored an amazing 125 (out of 125). Of the 45 boys who were awarded gold, 16 were invited to take the British Mathematical Olympiad and we await the results with interest.

On November 22nd, the Lower 6th Further Mathematics students attended 'Mathematics in Action', a one-day conference held at the London Institute for Education. The day consisted of a series of popular lectures with an emphasis on using probability and statistics in the real world. It was good to see students enjoying a day of popular mathematics, away from the confines of module specifications and public examinations.

On Sunday December 4th 24 boys from years 10 and 11 joined forces in the Old Refectory to do battle with some “new” maths problems. They faced problems which do not directly relate to standard GCSE questions but which do develop their mathematical problem solving skills. The students were grouped around 6 tables in mixed year 10 and year 11 sets. They settled in very quickly and were keen to be involved. The sessions were ably led, as ever, by Doug Whittaker, who designed the questions initially. A constant flow of advice was then available to the boys from Doug, Paul Marx, David Nolland, and Trevor Hyde. After a lunch break some ideas on engineering problems were floated; and we soon discovered an instance of a “good idea” but Not In My Back Yard!! The boys were also asked their thoughts on what engineering was about, before they returned to one last problem before going home at about 3:00 p.m. Although 3:00 p.m. was the scheduled finish time, they were deeply engrossed in the work and the schedule over-ran by a few minutes reflecting the interest shown by the boys. The day ran very well, and was conducted in an excellent atmosphere.

Physics

Philip Maton has achieved a Gold Medal in this year's British Physics Olympiad competition. He will now be invited to participate in the International Selection tests and, if successful, may get to compete in the International Physics Olympiad in Singapore next summer.

Religious Studies

The October Field Day provided all boys in Year 8 with a wonderful opportunity to visit three places of worship to experience first hand something of life and spirituality in different faith communities. During the day, each boy had an opportunity to explore St Albans Abbey and take part in some role-play whilst learning of the rich history and busy daily life of the Cathedral. Three local Jewish communities in Radlett, Elstree and Borehamwood warmly welcomed the boys and expertly shared their particular understanding of the importance of the Torah and Jewish history in their synagogues. Some boys also shared a meditation with a Buddhist monk after touring the Amaravati Vihara at Great Gaddesden, others observed puja taking place at the Murugan Hindu Temple and the remainder shared karah prashad with the Sikhs at the Shepherds Bush Gurdwara.
As always, each community extended a kind and generous welcome to our boys, who, full of 'satiable curiosity', were excellent ambassadors for the school.

Particular congratulations to Harry Bresslaw (L6R2), Mohammed Kazmi (L6C2) and Robin Morgan (2005 leaver), who each achieved one of the 5 highest marks in the country in their AQA GCSE and A level Religious Studies exams last year.

SPORT AND ACTIVITIES

Archery

The Archery club has continued to progress this year with a number of core archers building on the successes of last term and a few newer archers continuing to improve and gain experience. A highlight of the term included boys attending a local junior tournament organised for Sky television, which was opened by the Lord Mayor of Westminster. Ben Gan, Jonathan Constantinou and Jonathan Parr (all Y10) attended, with all managing to be included in the final aired programme about encouraging archery for the 2012 Olympics. The tournament was won by Ben Gan who over came some fierce opposition, including two archers who had placed in the top three in the recent summer London Youth Games. Through much hard work and attention to detail, Ben Gan continued to achieve excellent results in major tournaments, winning Junior Gold at the Brunel University Open, and being the only junior to reach the quarter finals of an Olympic style Head to Head knockout tournament, shot against both adults and juniors. Ben was unfortunately knocked out of the tournament by the favourite and eventual gold medal winner who was at least fifteen years his senior.

The end of term culminated with four boys Ben Gan, Jonathan Contantinou, Jonathan Parr and Arvind Patel (all year ten) shooting in the Junior National Indoor Championships and each boy was also encouraged and supported by their attending family. This was competition at the highest level in the UK and each boy gave solid performances. The quality of competition was always going to be extremely high with many national team members in attendance. Ben Gan showed great resolve to shoot close to his personal best to secure a national placing of 10th. The two Jonathans and Arvind all managed to secure a national placing just outside the top forty, which is a fabulous achievement considering that all the archers are only just nearing the end of their first year in the sport. This has been a good year for the Archery Club and I look forward to many more future successes with both established and new archers in the coming year.

Badminton

Badminton has continued to flourish this term with large numbers of boys playing the sport both at recreational and competitive level. The first challenge of the term was the Hertfordshire Squad Trials: Kamran Haq, Nigel Tao, Akash Jhunjhunwala, Anjul Haria and Arun Kumarathas were successful in being selected for the Under 17 Squad; Philip Chee and Alex Gomar were selected for the Under 15 Squad. Sahil Shah was selected for Under 13 Development Training. Kamran, Nigel and Akash have all represented Hertfordshire at different levels this term. Nigel continues to benefit from the specialized coaching through the prestigious National World Class Start training programme.

Once again there has been enormous interest in Badminton especially amongst the junior boys. It is very encouraging to see such enthusiasm. Forty boys in the first two years were selected for the School Under 13 Squad. A further forty-nine boys were selected to join the Under 15 and Under 18 Squads. All these boys have trained regularly on Mondays and Wednesdays after school; the boys have made progress in skill and in levels of fitness.

The Junior School Badminton Tournament was held on Open Day. Twenty-five boys took part. Sahil Shah won the event beating Rehaan Adat in the final. Losing semi-finalists were Anthony Mayer and Akash Kadiwar. We have also played fixtures against other Schools and have achieved very good results. Against Gravesend and St. Albans we won convincingly at all age groups. In the game against Hitchin we were evenly matched. Hitchin won convincingly at senior level, but our juniors preformed very well earning a draw.

Twenty-six boys entered the first round of the Hertfordshire Schools Badminton Association Tournaments and the boys did very well. All the boys won points for the School. At Under 15 'B' Level, Jake Sanders reached the semi-final of the Main Event singles and Richard Tan won the Plate. In the Under 13 Doubles two players new to the school, Paras Shah and Akhil Shah were the losing finalists in the Plate. In the Under 18 Tournament Akash Jhunjhunwala beat Suraj Shah in the final of the Singles Plate. Akash partnered by Ben Vranjkovic (John Henry Newman School) won the Doubles Plate.

Our thanks go again to Bob Welsh who has worked so hard with the boys to improve their skills.

Chapel

Shortly before half-term, the Chapel held its annual Harvest Festival service. As usual, produce was auctioned to raise money for the Bishop of St. Albans' Harvest Appeal for the Hungry, and this year we handsomely broke all records by raising the splendid sum of £281. In the second half of term, the Chapel was delighted to welcome Dr. Jeffrey John, Dean of St. Albans, who spoke with moving eloquence on the theme of the suffering God, with particular reference to Remembrance. The start of Advent was greeted with the traditional candle-light Carol Service, with mince pies and Chaplain's Hot Toddy providing the faithful with inner resources to brave the winter night.

Charity

Boys in the school have been very active in support of charitable causes this term. The tragedy of the earthquake in Pakistan brought a swift and generous response; so far we have sent over £2300 to help with the relief operations and more activities are planned. Proceeds from the Mufti Day, Calverts' whole house fete and individual efforts by Roshan Baskaran and Johan Bastianapllai have contributed to this total.

There are two charities chosen for school-wide support this year. Hope and Homes for Children works with abandoned or parentless children in eight Eastern European and five African countries. They try to place these children in families rather than leaving them in state-run orphanages or on the streets. The increasing incidence of AIDS in some African countries makes this work all the more urgent as there is a corresponding rise in the number of children left orphaned and destitute. The second charity is locally based in Barnet, offering help to people in North London and South Hertfordshire. Cherry Lodge Cancer Trust works alongside the NHS, supplying information and education, nursing support, complementary therapies and home visits. One of the most valuable means of support offered to cancer patients and their families is the 'drop-in' sessions where they can talk with people who understand and can help with the emotional and practical repercussions of the illness. The first funds raised for these came from a sponsored scoot around a 100m circuit one lunchtime by four boys in the Junior school - Michael Young, Sam Skalla, Jared Ovsiowitz and Naveen Nandakumar. The sale of Krispy Kreme doughnuts is one of the most popular (and noisy!) ways of getting boys to part with their money and several such sales have been organised, with great success. Several activities are being planned for next term and we look forward to supporting these two charities as generously as possible.

Many of the Houses choose a specific charity to support and this year Russell's Ironman III will raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust, in memory of Krishna Sabarwal. Strouts are helping Hearing Concern with monies raised from a Triathlon. This term they have all been swimming, with running and rowing to be done over the next two terms. 8S also ran a cake and sweet sale. Hendersons are supporting Otjikondo School in northern Namibia, where Mr Metcalfe in the Sports Dept spent some time last summer. 10/11H are rowing the distance there, 8 000 000 metres, to raise funds and an IPOD raffle by 10/11H2 raised £200 as well. Ben Jacobs in 9H has led the way in fund-raising for the Anthony Nolan Trust with a sports raffle generating some £350.

Not all activities are fund-raising. Ravi Shah in 9Rb is going to India to spend two weeks in an orphanage. He will be taking as much second-hand sports equipment as he can, donated by Habs sports department, boys and staff. The costs of shipping this will be met by funds raised by Demitri Kyriacou and Nicholas Haig in L6R2. 10/11C1 put together their free Book Vouchers and an additional £2 each which enables them to make a contribution to the library in a small Durban orphanage for children with AIDS. They have done this for a few years, gradually increasing the children's shelf. Poignantly, the 'thank you' card sent back contained photos of the children, some of whom will not have survived much longer.

Finally, the boys on the Under 14 Rugby tour to Biarritz combined training with fund-raising, rowing 10,000 metres with sponsorship, which enabled them to give over £800 to 'Sport Relief'.

Chess

Habs have had a dream start to the season. We easily won the prestigious Millfield International Tournament in October, with a tremendous performance from an under-strength team, losing only 10 games in 84 against top opposition.

Following that we triumphed in the U18 Rapidplay in Birmingham, with 33/40, beating our main rivals Nottingham on the way.

The ECF National Championships are now in full swing, Habs A already through to the Zone final with the loss of only half a point, and Habs B underlining the strength in depth at the school with a 6-0 whitewash of UCS 'A' in their only game so far. If we carry on like this we'll need another trophy cabinet!


Cross Country

The 2005-2006 season has so far proved to be the most successful quite some years. The sport of Cross Country running is currently growing in popularity in all year groups. This is due mostly to the outstanding performances of the year group captains and the infectious enthusiasm of their squads. The Entire squad is lead by Andrew Leach as overall captain. Andrew has been leading training sessions and is rapidly gaining in running form just in time for the team's main goal of the season, the County Cross Country Championships in Verumlanium Park, St. Albans on the 21st of January, 2006. This term's most important race was the Watford and District championships, which were held at the Royal Masonic School in Rickmansworth. At this race the squad proved themselves as the most successful Cross Country team in the district. The Year 7 team have strength in depth and their Year captain, Nishanth Selvakumar (7M) showed the way home by finishing 4th. The Year 8 team won their team race and were lead home by their captain, Joe McCormick (8J) who came second overall. Year 8 looks to be a very strong year, with Max Jenkins, James Edmunds and Anto Meyer all finishing just behind him.

The Year 9 race was of a very high standard and first HABS finisher was Kaz Ong (9H) in 9th place with his Year captain, Jamie Michaels (9J) just behind him. The Year 10 team also won their team race and it is proud to have in it's ranks Haberdashers' most successful Cross Country runner at present, Oliver Ilot (10H2), who finished in 3rd place and has had multiple high placings this term. He heads towards the County championships with genuine medal winning form and has been an inspiration to the entire squad. Jamie Everett (10M) was a creditable 11th in the race and continues to show commendable grit in training and an eagerness to fulfil his potential. The Year 11 Captain, Sam Cherkas (11R1), who is an 800m track specialist, with his sights set on the school record next summer, came 3rd in his race. Sam has had a fantastic season so far and he also goes to the County champs with medal prospects. He shows unrivalled dedication in his training and he seems the most likely to take over the captainship of the entire squad next year. John Mansell (11H2) has also had a return to good form this season, finishing in 15th place in the district champs and also guesting at senior level. He is backed up by the strong running of Martin Cheung (11R1) who is also rapidly improving. Finally, the Senior team have also risen to the occasion with Harry Walton (L6J1) being crowned District champion after a tactically perfect race. His ranks are bolstered by National level Swimmer James Alchorne (L6S2) who was a fantastic 3rd in the same race, helping the team easily take the overall win.

The spirit within the squad is high and expectations for the County championships next January are understandably high.

Engineering Education Scheme

The E.E.S. was established by the Royal Academy of Engineering as an annual national programme, aimed at enlightening students so that they can make informed decisions about the opportunities available to them in Engineering.

A team of four Lower 6th boys (Qasim Gulamhusein L6C1, Minsung Ko L6J1, Jeremy Leong L6J2, and Taishi Yamazaki L6H1) have been selected to form the E.E.S. team for this year. For the second year running the team will be attached to leading construction company Holloway White Allom, working alongside Engineer Mark Hailey.

The boys have carried out a site visit in Chelsea to see at first hand the exacting standards that Holloway White Allom work to. Their task is to develop a tool for checking the flatness of newly plastered walls, with a tolerance of just 3mm.

They are currently formulating possible solutions in readiness for a Residential Workshop to take place at the University of Hertfordshire from January 4th to 6th.


Mountaineering Club

Habs Mountaineering Club enjoyed a fantastic weekend in the Brecon Beacons (Friday 18th - Sunday 20th November). The Bursar, Mr Hardman and a team of seven mountaineers from Years 10, 11 and the Lower 6th were treated to a 'temperature inversion' on Saturday - we climbed the five sandstone peaks that collectively make up Camarthen Fan, covered a distance of 14 miles, and were able to look down upon a sea of cloud that obscured the valleys for the entire day. Due to the sub-zero conditions, we were able to 'bog-trot' across frozen ground whilst soaking up the views that extended for 40 - 50 miles in all directions!

The following day, Sunday, the group headed for the highest peaks in the area (Pen y Fan, Y Gyrn and Corn Du) and enjoyed yet more stunning scenery and views.

During the weekend we climbed 8 peaks, walked for well over 20 miles and climbed over 5000 feet!

Our next trip is scheduled for 17 - 19th March 2006 and we have plans for a weeklong trip at the beginning of the summer holidays next year. Any boy (in Years 10, 11, Lower and Upper 6th) interested in attending a Habs Mountaineering trip is urged to keep an eye on the Mountaineering Club notice board in the House Block and to keep their ears open for forthcoming trips during Section Assemblies.

Rugby

The Preparatory School: Changing the terms in which the Prep School plays rugby has been a success. With much better playing conditions prevailing there has been a marked improvement in handling skills across all the age groups and in competitive matches some very entertaining and competitive rugby has been played. However changing terms has also meant establishing ourselves in a new fixture circuit and as all the prep teams are finding, a much tougher circuit.

Although all teams have played with commitment and effort and enjoyed some results in their favour it would be fair to say that in some of the tougher fixtures against schools like St Columba's we have struggled and been given a lesson on how to tackle and how to support the player with the ball. Tackling has been our weakness particularly so when playing teams who are much physically bigger. All the teams have remained positive though and worked hard to improve the standard of their game.

Under 9's. At the recent St Columba's U9 tournament the team led by Adam Morgan (4CL) and Nikhil Amin (4NB) played in some very tight games against Bishop's Stortford and St John's, Northwood narrowly losing both games but scoring some well worked tries as well. There performance at this tournament showed how much progress they had made from their fixtures at the start of the term. If they tighten up defensively this team shows considerable promise.

In the Under 10's Jonathan May (5 SL) and Cian O'Riordan (5SL) have displayed a real determination in the tackle yet we have lacked a little pace in the forwards and despite a convincing win against Northwood Prep this has been our undoing at times and we have been forced to concede possession unnecessarily. As yet we have not learned to play as a team and pass the ball.

The Under 11 team played a number of fixtures against two-term rugby schools such as St Columba's and St Benedict's and found the size of the opposition difficult to cope with. In the Saracens Prep schools' tournament they produced some very entertaining and free passing play, their closest game being against Thorpe House, which they lost by 3 tries to 2. Tom Baines (6CG) and Ben Lockwood (6MJ) have been outstanding in their tackling and Eddie Almond (6MJ) shows considerable potential as a scrum half. Against Belmont these players led by example and after a rather shaky start Habs ran out winners by 21 points to 12.

Encouraging as some of the play has been this term the target for Prep teams has to be to improve their tackling otherwise we will continue to find it difficult to compete with teams that generally seem to be twice the size of ours.

The Main School: