James becomes the youngest ever to complete The Arizona Trail Race.

Year 9 student James Rothwell and his dad have just completed The Arizona Trail Race, a gruelling south-to-north 930-mile self-supported mountain bike race. It’s an incredible achievement for anyone to complete, let alone a 13-year-old. James was officially the youngest rider to have ever completed the race.

40 riders started, and 16 finished and this was actually a very high completion rate. It’s usually about ten!

During the trail temperatures ranged from 45 degrees to minus 10. The pair also had to contend with extreme isolation, days without real food or resupply. The trail also involved massive amounts of climbing (32,000 vertical metres) and the brutal Grand Canyon traverse.

Not only was it an amazing feat of endurance for a 13yr old, James also learned about the fascinating plant and animal life, saw incredible geology, and gained interesting insights into American culture.

We are so proud of James and are in awe of this phenomenal achievement.

Click here to read more about his trip! 

“Numbers” by Kieron Barry is a brutal and hilarious one-act comedy, set in an all-girls’ boarding school, depicting a vicious battle of wills between four Sixth Form girls in the hour before a new Head Girl is announced.

Eva Clarke, Kitty Ellis, Alex Shepherd and Maisie Newcombe have spent 5 months co-directing, producing, choreographing and set designing alongside learning lines and performing, and their hard work has undoubtedly paid off!

The play is both complex and thought-provoking, but it Is the actors who have made it a visceral emotional experience for the audience. Each one of them has shown depth to their acting, with precision and honesty.

A team of 20 students represented KEVI at The English Schools Swimming Association (ESSA) North East Secondary Schools Teams Championships 2024 in Durham, making waves amongst the established schools on their first visit. 

Our school entered two boys teams and two girls teams of year 9 and 10 club swimmers, with each team swimming a 4x50m freestyle relay and a 4x50m medley relay. All our swimmers performed really well, with team manager Claire Crossman (from Alnwick Dolphins) saying: ‘The swimmers were a credit to their school and their swimming clubs – it was a wonderful day for us all.’Becki McGuire, (head coach at Morpeth ASC) said; ‘ All our teams were in the top half of the results table and our Girls A team will be awarded top 3 medals in both the freestyle and the individual medley races’. 

As a result of these performances, our girls team will advance to the finals in Birmingham this weekend.

There is a wonderful pool of swimming talent at King Edward VI school, and with the support of the school, parents and our local swimming clubs, we will hope to continue to build on this success.

Reverend Canon Simon White led our Remembrance Service on Tuesday. Year 9 form representatives and cadets were in attendance and our Senior Students laid wreaths on behalf of the school, the school and the Foundation Governors in remembrance and tribute to all who suffered or died in war.

In World War One, 58 Old Boys and one member of staff paid the supreme sacrifice. Most of them found their last place of rest far from home: in Belgium, in France, in Gallipoli, in Poland, at sea; many of them have no known graves.

In the Second World War, by a strange coincidence, yet another 58 Old Boys perished in War – this time together with two members of staff. Only a few of them are buried in the UK. The remainder lie in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany, in Iceland and Italy, in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, in Burma and in Singapore. Again, many have no known grave but the sea.

In the Korean War of 1953, one Old Boy was killed while fighting for the United Nations in the cause of world peace.

In gratitude for the service and sacrifice of all these young men – their average age was only 24 – Arthur Graham took the reading and Mr Tedder read The Pride of the Poppy.

The service ended with the Last Post played on trumpet by Matthew Turner Will Straughan, Arthur Graham and Luke Miller supported by Ms Waterhouse.

Two KEVI students were recognised on a National Level for Lifesaving competition.

UK National SERC- stimulated emergency rescue (teams of four) 15-18 Champion goes to Ryan, and Natasha Poole, Year 9, was 3rd in junior girls category for in the UK National LifeSaving Sport competition (teams of two). 

Thursday 24 October 2024 saw the eleventh annual careers event where a vast number of education and training providers, and employers descend on school to inspire our students about the breadth of opportunities beyond school.

An important aspect of the event is the fact it sits outside of the school day enabling parents and carers to attend. This holistic approach to providing information and guidance to young people is a huge success. Attendance at the event was phenomenal; students really embraced the opportunity to begin networking and asking insightful questions that further fuels their ambitions.

The event itself is only possible because of the support we receive from such a range of organisations. We are so proud that lots of delegates return each year because of the positive experiences they have interacting with our students and families.

At The King Edward VI School, we value learning in addition to and beyond an academic curriculum.  We advocate for all of our students to develop attributes of Accomplished Students; where we recognise success in addition to academic outcomes. It is important for us to provide opportunities outside of the classroom where students can develop and demonstrate their resilience, responsibility, respect, care, curiosity and motivation; all of which provide a valuable foundation for success after school.

When students join us in Year 9, they arrive from three main feeder schools. It is important that students, alongside their tutor, quickly develop strong and positive working relationships. In order to support this development, all students in Year 9 took part in a morning or afternoon of team building with their peers.

The event itself took place over 3 days with all 12 tutor groups having some great fun, whilst developing problem solving and leadership skills. We even had great weather for 2 out of the 3 days!

A huge thank you to our parents who contributed a donation and the Foundation Governors for supporting us to provide this opportunity for our students.