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24 May 2024
by Ferdinand Steinbeis
by Ferdinand Steinbeis
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SPOTLIGHT - What's new at our schools?
Hello and welcome to SPOTLIGHT!
In this feature we will bring you the latest news and interesting insights from our partner schools. This won't be any old news, however. Instead, SPOTLIGHT will focus on the exciting, the unusual and the amusing.
We hope you enjoy!
In this SPECIAL feature we'd like to draw your attention to one particular school's activities. Malvern College's Outdoors Department (imagine a school that does nothing but organise exciting outdoorsy activities for your kids!) conceived an adventure game that we found so exciting that we simply had to shine our spotlight onto it.
Getting back to school...(picture courtesy of Malvern College)
It’s no secret that a lot of (most of?) what children learn at a British boarding school happens outside of the classroom. Want to be a team-player? Then live and get on with 30 other boys and girls under one roof. Want to become more resilient? Then learn from losing that hockey game on the week-end. Want to overcome your stage-fright? Then, with our help, present a project in front of the whole school before term’s out!
Some schools take this one step further. Enter Malvern College. Malvern’s amazing Outdoors Team has created LOST, an adventure game that challenges pupils to be self-reliant, resourceful problem-solvers. And teaches them a really important lesson along the way.
When we heard about this challenge, we loved it so much that we had to tell you about it.
Yep! (picture courtesy of Malvern College)
An adventure scenario right out of a Hollywood thriller
This is how it works: 10 teams of two pupils from each boarding house are blindfolded and dropped 50 kilometers from school. Then it’s up to them to find their way back to Malvern College within 24 hours. It’s a race against time.
So far, so easy, right? But there’s several twists. Pupils aren’t allowed to use maps, any technology (reads: no smartphones!), a compass or any other personal items. Basically, they are entirely reliant on the kindness of strangers. To orient themselves, to hitch car-rides, to snag a train-ride and to find a place to stay overnight.
And if this wasn’t tricky enough, there’s rules. Break these rules and you are penalized.
Rule #1: Car rides are allowed for 7 miles per car only.
Rule #2: Only one train ride to get to the next station.
Rule #3: Find accommodation by 8pm or risk having to start with a one-hour delay the next morning.
The team that makes it back to College first collects the sponsorship money raised by all Houses for their chosen charity.
To get a real sense of what this is like, take a look at this video.
Getting ready...(picture courtesy of Malvern College)
Some properly creative problem-solving
Needless to say, this is a gnarly challenge and the children ought to be commended for joining in the first place. But what we find most amazing is how creative teams get in order to be as fast as possible.
Two examples.
Last year one LOST team convinced a group of complete strangers to drive in a convoy of three cars. Like this, they covered 21 miles by switching cars after every seven miles. Rule #1 perfectly adhered to. Now that’s creative problem-solving at its best!
This year, a team managed to wrangle a helicopter ride from a local flight school all the way back to school. This was perfectly within the rules of the game: helicopters hadn’t even featured as a possible solution. Absolute genius
Pupils get blindfolded...(picture courtesy of Malvern College)
It’s all safe!
If you are a parent reading this, your mind will probably already be in overdrive at the potential risks of this game. Car lifts from strangers? Come on!
Never fear. When it comes to the pupils’ safety, Malvern wouldn’t ever leave anything to chance. Every team is assigned a chaperone, a Malvern staff member, who is with the teams at all times, but follows at a distance and only intervenes in an emergency. Also, LOST HQ, Malvern’s Outdoors Team tracks each teams’ every move via GPS. For their safety, but also to ensure that there’s no cheating. And finally, whenever pupils hitch a car ride, the chaperone does a thorough check on the driver beforehand by feeding a picture of the driver and number-plate back to LOST HQ for a quick police vetting procedure.
Climbing a fence...(picture courtesy of Malvern College)
Most people are kind
But as ever, behind the fun adventure there is also a bigger lesson Malvern College wants to impart here: the majority of people are kind!
We live in an age where negative headlines dominate. The expression ‘stranger danger’ abounds and has lead parents, and by inference their children, to believe that bad people lurk around every corner.
LOST’s mission is to set this record straight. Most people out in the world are kind. They often go out of their way to help strangers. Malvern College is sending an really important message here!
We LOVE this challenge!
SPOTLIGHTS from March 2023- April 2024
WESTONBIRT SCHOOL GOES NEPAL
Pupils and teachers at Camp Annapurna (picture courtesy of Westonbirt School)
No one can say that it gets boring at boarding school. Not even during the Easter holidays. Westonbirt's Y12 spent one adventure-filled week in Nepal mountain-climbing, soaking up the culture and teaching primary school children. Highlights included a treck up 4130m to the Annapurna base camp to see the sun rise, as well as exploring the capital Kathmandu for several days. Like many of our partner schools, Westonbirt School has a global service programme, which aims to provide students with enriching experiences beyond the classroom.
LET'S GO! IB-EXAMS START THIS WEEK!
Pupils taking the IB exam in 2023 (picture courtesy of Pearson)
It's the big one. Last Wednesday marked the start of the IB exams 2024 at all IB schools the world over. von Bülow's Managing Director Ferdinand Steinbeis remembers this time at his alma mater Sevenoaks School 30 years ago: " It's an intensely exciting and nerve-racking time. For over a month you enter this parallel universe of writing exams daily, then going back to your boarding house or to library to start preparing for the next one. It's also an incredible social experience: you are surrounded by friends going through the same experience. Everyone was super supportive. We also let off steam, doing sports, eating well and making each other laugh as much as possible."
Good luck to all our pupils at Ardingly College, Bradfield School, Bromsgrove School, Bryanston School, Charterhouse, Fettes College, Gresham's School, Haileybury School, Malvern College, Oakham School, Sevenoaks School, St Clare's School, Stonyhurst School, Worth School and Wellington College!
Break a leg, everyone!
SPOTLIGHTS from March 2023- March 2024
Sitting down for chat about careers - pupil and ex-pupil (picture courtesy of Sevenoaks School)
On the 22nd February, Sevenoaks School invited over 100 alumni back to school to meet with students in Years 11 and 12 and share their knowledge and career experience.
Pupils had the opportunity to talk with medical doctors, management consultants, lawyers, publishers, artists, civil engineers, architects, actors, fashion designers, film makers and entrepreneurs about their illustrious careers.
Our managing director Ferdinand Steinbeis, himself a Sevenoaks School alumn, met with over 30 pupils to talk about his former careers in the music industry, innovation consulting and his current role as an entrepreneur.
It is these types of events at top boarding schools like Sevenoaks that spark ideas which can shape futures!
A wet and muddy affair: pupils mid-run!(picture courtesy of Sedbergh School)
It’s the big one! On the 19th March Sedbergh School hosted its most anticipated event of the year, the Wilson Run. This legendary cross-country race dates back to 1881 and is seen as a real rite of passage. Pupils run for ten miles across the fells, through mud, across streams and up mountains. It’s intense. It’s exhausting. But it’s also deeply satisfying. Needless to say, the run is celebrated accordingly with a huge party in the evening.
Teacher mid-jump!(picture courtesy of Sedbergh School)
Fastest boy was Dan Dean, who made it in 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Fastest girl was Hannah Francis, who made it in 1 hour and 41 minutes.
Here's the school's report on the event.
Congrats, guys!
What a coup!
Big news from Middle England: Rossall School, known for its high-quality football offer, has only teamed up with the biggest football club in the world right now, Manchester City! Details of the partnership are still a little hazy, but at the very least it will see two members of City's Football Education coaching team work permanently at the school. Training will take place both at Rossall School and the local Mill Farm Sports Complex and the partnership will also incorporate a number of visits to the Etihad campus throughout the year.
More info to come, but It’s fair to say that Rossall’s football aficionados are OVER THE MOON about this collaboration.
What the Futures Institute will look like (picture courtesy of Dollar Academy)
Schottish boarding school Dollar Academy does not do half-measures. The school recently launched its inspirational Futures Institute, where it will encourage pupils to better understand the world’s challenges around sustainability and help develop solutions. Dollar’s Future Institute will offer its pupils courses to understand sustainability.
Building sustainable futures: pupils will have access to maker-spaces (picture courtesy of Dollar Academy)
Pupils will run maker-projects with the help of experts (there’s talk of building robots!). Pupils will be able to do internships and mentorships in this space. Sounds lofty? It is! But it doesn’t stop there: Dollar is putting its money where its proverbial mouth is by building a stunning hub on its campus, designed by renowned architect and Dollar Academy alumni Andrew Walley OBE.
Brainstorming ideas - two girls sketching up (picture courtesy of Dollar Academy)
What an amazing initiative! We’ll travel to Dollar in the summer term to find out more, so what this space!
January and February can be somewhat slow in terms of real SPOTLIGHT-worthy news at our partner schools. Sure, there were Chinese New Years celebrations. Also there's always interhouse sports and music competitions to report on. But none of this excited us enough to feature here.
Enter Oundle School's out-of-this-world Patrick Engineering Center. It's not new, but it's so fantastic that we felt compelled to shine our spotlight there this time!
Got an old car? Why not make something cool out of it! 2023 © Oundle School
By now you might be aware of our passion for Design Engineering at our partner schools. Pupils take their first steps into the worlds of product design, engineering and architecture. They start with pencil and paper and end up with fully-fledged product prototypes. They work with different materials from plastic to steel. They learn how to use hammer and nail, as well as 3D printers and lazer-cutters. Many go on to study industrial engineering, product design or architecture and go on to work at BMW or Apple.
Future car designers at work! 2023 © Oundle School
In our opinion there is currently no better place to study Design Engineering than Oundle School's Patrick Engineering Center. Pupils work across a range of cutting-edge skills from robotics, programming, product development to computer-aided product design and manufacture. The workshops are out-of-this-world cool. The last time we visited we saw pupils building electric cars out of their parents' beat-up, second-hand cars.
Using the latest technology: a metal cutter 2023 © Oundle School
For anyone interested in innovation, THIS is the place to come to!
Watch a video about the Patrick Engineering Center here.
SPOTLIGHTS from March-December 2023
As a suitable, last SPOTLIGHT this calendar year, we leave you with three wintery shots from Gordonstoun in Scotland. These photographs were taken last week. Enjoy!
From last week: Gordonstoun's main house in all its snowy glory
Wintery magic: The school's chapel
Stunning: Gordonstoun at dusk
GRESHAM'S SCHOOL RECEIVES VERY (!) GENEROUS DONATION
Beautiful: designs for Gresham's new prep school
It is nice to have a grateful benefactor. James Dyson, Gresham School's alumn, famous inventor (vaccum cleaners!) and CEO of the Dyson empire recently donated £35mio to Gresham's School in order to build a state-of-the art prep school. This donation comes on the back of an already very generous donation to build Gresham's Dyson Building, a fantastic STEAM center. Needless to say this new prep school will have new tech equipment and its very own STEAM center. This will put Gresham's firmly on the map for all things STEAM. Lucky, lucky Gresham's kids!
INNOVATIVE ENGINEERING AT CHARTERHOUSE SCHOOL
Future engineers in action at Charterhouse (pictures courtesy of Charterhouse School)
Ever tried to build a marble run, which would take precisely 60 seconds from top to bottom, no more, no less? Or build the lightest chair made from cardboard that can support an adult? Pupils in Charterhouse's new Innovative Engineering activity will take on similar design and engineering briefs from now on. The idea is to use all their creativity and problem-solving skills to tackle briefs with very limiting constraints. Pupils learn how to think and work like scientists and engineers. Lovely!
SURFING IN NOVEMBER? TRURO SCHOOL MAKES IT HAPPEN!
Ready to go: Boarders learning to surf (picture courtesy of Truro School)
Today's youngsters are soft? Not at Truro School! This lot took to the ice-cold Cornish seas for week-ends of learning how to surf. For this, they headed to beautiful Perranporth Beach close to Truro. Despite the gloomy weather, they braved the high winds and challenging surf conditions for several fantastic afternoons of surfing.
TAUNTON'S ANTHONY KNIGHT PLAYS WITH BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Violin prodigy Anthony Knight (picture courtesy of Taunton School)
A dream come true for any budding young musician! Taunton School music scholar Anthony Knight, 17, was chosen to play with the world-famous orchestra at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios in London. Anthony took part in workshops and rehearsals before leading the orchestra’s second violins in a performance of Smetana’s Vltava and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel Overture. “I was speechless when I learned I had got the chance to do this,” said Anthony, who leads Taunton School’s Symphony Orchestra and also plays in a string quartet. “It felt like a dream performing at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios – a place where so many famous musicians have performed,” said Anthony.
SPOTLIGHTS from March-October 2023
MALVERN COLLEGE STARTS GRYFON'S DEN
Gryphon's Den, Malvern's own version of the Lion's Den competition
Budding entrepreneurs, this is for you! Malvern College is starting its very own start-up competition called the Gryfon's Den. Similar to the well-known TV-series, 'Lion's Den' participating pupils develop business ideas, which they pitch to a jury of entrepreneurs in the Malvern area and Malvern alumni. They get seed capital as well as coaching. So far 60 participants have signed up. Very exciting!
WELLS CATHEDRAL'S 'EVENT ON THE LAWN'
Wells Cathedral's own music festival to raise funds
Like so many boarding schools in the UK, Wells Cathedral School is partnered with a school on the African continent. Wells, however, goes the extra mile when it comes to fundraising. To finance a new school bus for Ballanta Academy of Music in Sierra Leone the school organised its very own music festival. Last week, Wells opened its doors to the public. Numerous bands, the school's orchestra, its choirs and string ensembles performed to Wells locals. Beautiful spectacle!
RADLEY COLLEGE WINS 'TATLER SCHOOL OF THE YEAR'
Radley in all its glorious beauty
We are somewhat lukewarm about awards, but this one we felt was thoroughly deserved. Boys school Radley College won this year's Tatler School of the Year award against stiff competition. Brighton College, Bradfield College, Uppingham School and Shrewsbury School were also in contention - all amazing schools in their own right. Congratulations, Radley! Thoroughly deserved!
BEDALES SCHOOL'S BRILLIANT NEW VIDEO
Yes, Bedales even has sheep!
No doubt, Bedales School is unusual. Lots of autonomy and celebration of individuality; no school uniform; an amazing creative offer. Therefore it is not surprising that it has produced a fabulous new video introducing itself to the world. Here's the video.
SCHOOLS SHOW OFF OWN BEE HIVES ON WORLD BEE DAY
Beekeepers courtesy of Framlingham College, Kilgraston School and Gresham's School
World Bee Day was on Saturday 20th. Right on cue our Spotlight inbox was flooded with amazing pictures from our schools showing pupils inspecting bee hives, even tasting honey fresh off the beehive frames!
Many of our schools keep bee colonies as part of their extracurricular activites, or to make biology lessons even more interesting.
GREENPOWER RACING SEASON HAS STARTED!
Greenpower racers courtesy of Wycombe Abbey and cars in the making at St Swithuns and Frensham Heights School
May kicked off with the first of several Greenpower Car Races. For this exciting boarding school challenge, pupils design, build and race electric cars against other schools. The beauty of this challenge is its versatility: teams pool their creative-, maths-, technology- and engineering-skills to build electric cars from scratch. Then they race. Here's a quick account from two girls at Wycombe Abbey School about their first race:
“We had a fantastic day filled with racing, fixing, and delicious burgers to re-fuel us between races. It was our first time driving the cars, so we were quite scared at first, but we found them easy to drive since they are very well made. We began the day with a hectic race where we switched out drivers every few laps and everyone was trying to get into the rhythm of it. Then, there was a race for over sixteen drivers that did not stop racing for an hour which was crazy. We were particularly excited when we were told that we could start the last race because it meant we had to concentrate hard with so many cars filling the track. This race was much smoother than the first as everyone knew how to help the next drivers get ready in the pit lane. Overall, the day was extremely fun and active because of our team’s amazing drivers and all the teachers supporting us and organising everything.”
The next race is on 17 September. Watch this space!
GORDONSTOUN OUTDOORS EXPEDITION!
Pupils off expeditioning
One of many things that makes Gordonstoun amazing is its unique location in rural Scotland. Inevitably the school makes ample use of this and is one of a handful of schools in the UK with a dedicated, specialist outdoors-team. Last week-end pupils from Y9 and Y10 set off on an outdoors expedition, complete with hiking, camping and time by the North Sea. Bliss!
A PICTURE AND ITS STORY
The photo in question ;-)
A blurry aerial photo with a few vague descriptions of landmarks in red pen. This is what Joss Buchanan, former headmaster of King William's College on the Isle of Man, found in the post a few days ago. An accompanying note lifted the mystery: The picture showed King William's College from the air. It had been taken from a plane cockpit by Carl Luebbert, a former pupil at the school a few days earlier.
10 years ago Carl had signed up to one of King William's more exotic activities - flying lessons at the local airport. Henceforth he had spent his boarding school Saturdays flying between Belfast and Liverpool under the tutelage of an instructor. Carl had fulfilled himself a childhood dream.
Fast forward a few years, and Carl is taking his first flight as a captain for British Airways. And the route takes him back to where it all began — he flies from Heathrow to Belfast, directly over the Irish Sea and King William’s, a tiny speck on the Isle of Man. Appreciating the symbolism of the moment, Carl takes a quick picture of the school from the cockpit, and sends it to Joss, who is sitting thousands of feet below in his office at school!
We thought this tale was a beautiful vignette of what a monumental impact a boarding school stay in the UK can have on the life of a pupil.
SPOTLIGHTS from March/April 2023
BRYANSTON SCHOOL LAUNCHES 'BRY.RADIO', ITS OWN RADIO STATION
BRY.RADIO in action!
At von Bülow Education we know and love Bryanston School as an especially innovative school. So it came as no surprise when we found out that the school launched its very own radio station BRY.RADIO. The station is live 24/7 and broadcasts a variety of shows, including music, interviews, debates and even the weather! BRY.RADIO is played in the School Shop, Café, Sports Hall and in the school's Common Rooms. We love that it's produced by pupils for pupils! Check it out here!
RENDCOMB COLLEGE BUYS VILLAGE POST OFFICE
Rendcomb post office
A news nugget as eclectic as our schools themselves: Rendcomb College has bought the local village store and post office, a long-standing destination for pupils to spend their pocket money. But buying chocolate and sending postcards home won't be the only things pupils will be doing. Rendcomb plans to use the shop as a real-life case study for business studies students in how to run a small business. What a coup!
HAILEYBURY SCHOOL TO OPEN SCI-TECH CENTER IN SEPTEMBER
A design reel of Haileybury's SciTech Center
It's been in the works for a good three years. In September it will finally open its gates: Haileybury's SciTech Center. The school will unite the natural sciences and astrophysics, design technology, computer science and its innovative Stan-X research programme under one roof. We can't wait to see what pupils will do here! We know that the focus will be all on actually practicing the above subjects by experimenting, coding, building and researching. If only WE could go back to school....
GORDONSTOUN SCHOOL PUBLISHES ITS OWN COOKBOOK
The Gordonstoun Cook Book
What do you do if you want to raise money for good causes and have happy, hungry pupils from 60 countries in one place? Exactly. You publish a cookbook with recipes from around the world! Truly a very Gordonstoun product! The book is a creation by Gordonstoun's Young Entrepreneurs Team and the pupils of Gordonstoun School. The money from sales will go 100% to sponsor individual children in Africa and Asia. Interested in buying a copy? Then please get in touch via thecookbookco.gordonstoun@gmail.com.
SEVENOAKS SCHOOL TAKES PART IN ROBOTICS COMPETITION
Geeks at work: Sevenoaks students building a robot
For a good 10 years now, Sevenoaks has had its state-of-the-art own design technology center and pupils are putting it to good use. The school's ZETA team is currently in maker-mode: they are designing and building a robot from scratch, which will compete in the First Robotics Competition. And as if building a robot isn't tricky enough, the team has to raise funds, build a team brand and organise outreach events to spread STEM. W/r to the latter, pupils teach coding to children in primary schools and Ukraininan refuges.
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Holbrooke House
34 - 38 Hill Rise
Richmond
TW10 6UA
Tel: +44 (0) 203 9534063
Email: info@buloweducation.com
Holbrooke House
34 - 38 Hill Rise
Richmond
TW10 6UA
Tel: +44 (0) 203 9534063
Email: info@buloweducation.com