Read the new issue of the Bohunt Education Trust magazine, BETTER TIMES, with the latest news and views from our high achieving family of schools here
Students and staff are celebrating the GCSE results of our Class of 2023, who have shown great commitment, determination and hard work over the last few years.
Achievements were celebrated across the school and many of our students will be continuing their
studies in our sixth form.
Some of the standout individual highlights include:
● Marie-Louise J (above) who successfully achieved 8 of the highest grades, grade 9, in English
Literature, English Language, Maths, Spanish, Combined Science, Religious Education and
Geography.
● Maia A (above) who achieved 9s in all three sciences, Geography, Maths, English Literature, English
Language and Religious Education.
● Megan H also achieved 8 Grade 9s including in all three sciences, Maths, English and
German.
● Freddie V who was successful in attaining grade 9’s in Combined Science, English and
Computer Science as well as several grade 8’s
● Harvey C who worked incredibly hard to get an excellent set of grades including two
Distinction grades in Business and Health and social Care
● Henry B who has successfully managed his England Basketball commitments alongside his
academic courses to achieve an excellent set of grades.
● Irena S who joined our school from the Ukraine, has flourished and with her excellent
results and will continue into our sixth form
● Erin S who through the course of Year 11 worked hard to raise the money to attend the
World Scout Jamboree in South Korea and also made incredible academic progress
● Soibi J who achieved an incredible set of results as part of our wonderful boarding
community.
We are proud to say that our students make better progress in English and Maths than in most
schools nationally. We are particularly pleased with the progress of our students in Creative Arts with
incredible results in Music, Art and Dance. All sciences and Religious Studies also continue to
achieve strong results.
The continued academic success of Steyning Grammar School is testament to our students’ hard
work towards the highest academic standards – an attitude that is nurtured by our excellent teachers
and the school’s development of positive learning characteristics in our students.
Today’s results reflect Steyning Grammar School’s commitment to BET’s ethos of ‘enjoy, respect,
achieve’, which underpins the culture and outcomes of all its schools. This includes delivering
unparalleled educational opportunities and highly effective teaching to nurture and develop students
into becoming “game-changers”.
Together, the Trust and the school aim to support young people to flourish throughout their school
journeys and then on into later life, with educational, enrichment and pastoral support both inside
and outside the classroom.
Aidan Timmons, Head of School, said:
“We wish the students the very best of luck with their next steps following these excellent results.
They should be very proud of their achievements, as we are as a school. All the hard work has paid off
and it is lovely for the staff to be able to celebrate with them today. A particular thank you goes both
to the staff and of course the parents for their tireless support. Remember the grades are only part of
the picture, it is who you are and the character you display that counts. We look forward to the
progress you will all no doubt continue to make in the future.”
The hard work and dedication of our students over the last two years has paid off with some brilliant A Level results today.
There were smiles, sighs of relief and plenty of hugs as our leavers found out the grades which will enable them to study at university or follow their chosen career path.
There were many of stories of success and personal achievement, including students who gained Oxbridge places to those who overcame the odds to achieve fantastic results.
Standout performances included Daniel W who achieved an A* in Chemistry alongside 3 A’s in Biology, Maths and Further Maths and goes on to study Medicine at Cardiff University.
Tom F gained an A* in all 4 of his subjects: Chemistry, History, Maths and Further Maths, while carrying out his role as President of the Sixth Form. Tom will be going on to study Maths at Warwick University.
Daniel said: “It’s been a lot of hard work but I am so glad I studied here and actually feel quite sad it’s all over.”
Friends Florence (left) and Annie were overjoyed to both be accepted into Cambridge University. Florence achieved an A* in RE and A in English Literature and History and will study Philosophy while Annie, who achieved A*, A*, B, B, will study English.
Florence and Annie were among a number of students securing places at prestigious universities such as Cambridge and Warwick and for highly competitive degree subjects such as Medicine and Law.
Results in Applied A Level subjects were exemplary, with more than 60% of grades achieved at Distinction or higher.
Maisie M who achieved a Distinction* for Sports Studies alongside her successful football achievements playing for Brighton and Hove and the Welsh International Under 18’s team.
Several of our students refused to let difficult circumstances stand in the way of achieving their dreams.
Daniel (above) had a very difficult start to his sixth form journey, having battled a serious illness during the lower sixth. He then made up for lost time, “giving up his social life” to throw himself back into his studies. Today he was “in complete shock” to discover he had achieved an A* in Biology, an A in Chemistry and an A in Physics.
Meanwhile Chelsy moved to the UK from Uganda two years ago and had to adapt to life and school in a different part of the world while starting her studies for BTECs in health and social care. Today she found out she had achieved a distinction in these which will enable her to either go into nursing or physiotherapy. “What helped me was how nice everybody at the school was” she said.
SGS proudly hosted a celebration of the Art, Photography and DT work of our departing Year 13 and Year 11 students at an exhibition.
Fellow students, parents, friends and the wider Steyning community visited the exhibition, which was accompanied by music from a range of year groups.
Art teacher Hannah Albrow said: “It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the outstanding creative achievements of our students and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.”
See below for exhibition photographs taken by Seawhite of Brighton, which provides the majority of the art and design materials used by students.
“It’s nice to be out in the woods with your mates, and what’s really great is you are doing a good deed for Steyning.”
“Mud. In the best way possible, mud.”
“It’s a nice chance to be away from the screen and the views are amazing.”
Watch Year 7 students talk about taking part in a conservation project on the South Downs, clearing dead ash trees and creating new pathways for the public.
The students have been working with the Steyning Dowland Scheme, helping to maintain our beautiful countryside while enjoying the benefits of spending time in nature.
The partnership between SGS and the Steyning Downland Project has been running for more than 10 years and every year each Year 7 tutor group spend a day doing conservation work.
Teacher Christine Humphreys, who accompanies the students on their Downland Days said: “The students get to learn about the local environment, conservation, the safe use of tools and teamwork.”
The school’s boarders have also been supporting the project and recently spent the day planting more than 1,000 saplings in an open area of The Downs, to create a hedge and encourage biodiversity.
The saplings were donated by The Woodland Trust and Steyning for Trees.
Director of boarding, Tom Leighton, said: “The students are leaving a legacy for after they have left the school.”
Watch boarders spend a Saturday morning working hard on The Downs.
International Women’s Day provided an opportunity to celebrate former SGS pupils who have gone on to do great things in their chosen field.
Singer/songwriter Maisie Peters, who left SGS in 2018, is currently supporting Ed Sheeran on his tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Maisie was dedicated in all areas of school life and completed music qualifications as an additional subject, performing in school shows and concerts.
Music teacher Jonathan Reeves said: “The key to her success has been raw talent, but mixed with a dedication and single mindedness that has given this talent a direction.
“She was already a complete YouTube legend with many thousands of followers before leaving SGS, and a key to her success and getting noticed was this relentless management of her YouTube channel to build a fan base. This was where she was noticed by the likes of Ed Sheeran and then signed to his record label.”
Maisie’s song Place We Were Made describes her teenage years growing up in Steyning, a track she wrote while still at school.
Outside of the music world, historian Elizabeth Norton has written 13 books about queens of England and the Tudor period and made many appearances as an expert on television. She achieved a first class degree from Oxford and completed a doctorate there in 2019.
Another former pupil, Jessica Shepherd is a highly respected botanical artist, painter, publisher and botanist who goes under the alias, Inky Leaves. She has demonstrated her skills in a BBC 4 documentary and held solo exhibitions in London as well as founding a podcast which discusses and promotes botanical art.
After leaving Steyning, Hannah Darcy studied at Cambridge Veterinary School in 2013 and then did specialist training in small animal medicine. She is a member of the American and European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and has worked in Sydney before returning to the UK where she works in a practice in Marlow.
Rebecca Allen is Director of the Centre for Education Improvement Science (CEIS) at the IOE, at University College, London. Here she oversees research into the economics of education, cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Sarah Kerr-Dineen is now headteacher of Oundle School and a governor at four prep schools. Her teaching career spans more than 30 years and she has taught for the Open University and schools in London and Oxford.
She sits on the advisory board for the Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation, which helps disadvantaged and vulnerable children from across the UK to access fully funded bursaries at leading schools.
Sally Randall, who taught at SGS for 37 years and now works in boarding, said: “These women are at the pinnacle of their careers and have done amazing things. In many cases they have just gone on and achieved a lot without much fanfare.
“It will be exciting to see what our current pupils go on to achieve.
“A lot of our boarding students do outreach work with primary schools and the church and there is so much potential here.”
Sixth formers and staff travelled to Poland during half term, where they made an “emotional and thought provoking” visit to Auschwitz.
On the first day of the A Level Humanities trip, the group of around 50 students took a guided tour of Krakow, seeing the Medieval old town and the Jewish quarter of the city, where they learned about the ghettos Jews were forced to live in after the Nazi invasion.
Later on they spent the afternoon at the Schindler museum, where local businessman Oskar Schindler helped save the lives of many Jews during the Second World War. His life was later captured in Steven Spielberg’s film, Schindler’s list.
The second day of the trip saw the group visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the largest concentration camp in occupied Europe during the Second World War.
“Hopefully the trip will remain with them for the rest of their lives. “
Teacher Jack Fleming.
History teacher Jack Fleming, who accompanied the students, said: “The experience was incredibly overwhelming for staff and students alike, as we saw first hand the place where over a million people were exterminated by the Nazis.
“All of us came away with an extra appreciation of the true horror of the Holocaust and many students revealed how emotional it had made them.”
Year 13 student Harry Miles, who went on the trip, said: “I would say that the trip to Poland was on the whole an amazingly culturally enriching trip to a quite beautiful country.
“Visiting the Auschwitz camp itself is an incredibly emotive and moving experience and is somewhere I would recommend people go to so they can be educated on the horrors that occurred there. It is a sombre experience but an incredible opportunity to visit a place like this”
Mr Fleming added: “Hopefully the trip will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We returned home glad to have gone and seen with our own eyes the scale of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, and a resolve not to let those crimes ever be forgotten.”
Aspiring chef Ben Northeast has seasoned, simmered and stirred his way into the next round of a national cooking competition.
The talented Year 10 student came first in the local final of Springboard’s Future Chef Competition against other outstanding young cooks from across Sussex.
During the contest held at Chichester College, Ben impressed the judges with his dish of pork roll wrapped in bacon, served on a bed of pureed butternut squash and greens with a pan cooked reduction.
“Ben’s organisational skills in the kitchen were outstanding and the dish he cooked for the judges was absolutely sensational.
Ben’s teacher, Tony Williams
He will need to reproduce his winning dish and create a dessert at the next stage of the contest on February 3rd, where he will compete against cooks from across the Home Counties.
Tony Williams, who teaches Food prep and Nutrition at SGS and has organised the school’s participation in Futurechef said: “Ben’s organisational skills in the kitchen were outstanding and the dish he cooked for the judges was absolutely sensational.
“He wants to be a chef when he is older and he is so focussed.”
Also proudly representing SGS at the local finals was Liam Denahrt who cooked an African inspired dish of lamb tagine and flavoured flat bread.
To prepare him for the next round, held at Hammersmith College, Ben is being mentored by professional chef David Porter, who works at Plymouth Naval base.
Springboard’s Future Chef competition attracts thousands of students aged 14-16 and culminates in a national final in London in March, attended by well-known chefs and industry professionals.
