The PE Department is delighted to announce that we, The King Edward VI School, have achieved the School Games Gold Mark Award for the 2023/24 academic year.

This award is to reward and recognise school’s engagement (provision and uptake) in the School Games against a national benchmark and to celebrate keeping young people active. We are delighted to have been recognised at this level for our success.

We are extremely proud of our students for their dedication to all aspects of physical activity and school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our events possible. We are dedicated to ensuring our students have the opportunity to compete in sport across all levels of performance and are also committed to using the School Games to try and engage those young people who haven’t previously been active or represented our school. We want to ensure that all of our students have a positive experience and try out new activities beyond school, within our community. We strongly believe in the power of physical activity and school sport and will continue to provide opportunities for all of our students.

Thank you to all staff and SLT who have supported us with extra curricular provision including our highly successful Sports Tour during this academic year. Collaboratively, we have once again strived for and achieved the Gold Mark Award.

Huge congratulations to Year 12 Sports Student Cameron Twynholm who has become the youngest ever Men’s Northumberland County Golf Champion. The first junior to follow in his father’s footsteps in Northumberland Golf History! The victory came after a week of matches at Matfen Hall. Well done Cameron from us all at KEVI!

Come along to The Cheviot Ceilidh on Thursday 11th July at 7:00pm.

Featuring performances from Chantry, Newminster and The King Edward VI School Ceilidh Bands as well as a performance from our very own Jazz Band. This one is not to be missed.

Congratulations to Oliver Redman on making the shortlist of thirteen finalists selected from all the entries by the Foundation Diploma course teachers in The Northern School of Art’s inaugural Foundation Art Prize competition.

Oliver’s work was chosen from over ninety entries to the competition, which was devised and overseen by the School’s Middlesbrough campus Foundation Art Diploma course to celebrate the talents of young creatives in the North East and Yorkshire and Humber regions.

Oliver  ‘La Sagrada Familia’ was inspired by a recent trip to the city of Barcelona. On this visit, he was taken back by the sheer intricate beauty of this historic building. This links to his project in A-Level art based on architecture

Oliver commented, “When I heard about the competition, I knew it would be a struggle to complete in time, but with much hard work and countless hours spent completing the piece, I was able to finish before the deadline. In a way, it feels topical that this piece would take so much from me, as it was the essence of Gaudi’s life’s work, and took him so long, he was never able to see it completed himself.”

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Year 13 Celebration Evening 

Our Senior Students; Andrew, Will, George and Liam, hosted our annual Celebration Evening on Wednesday 8 May. This was a wonderful evening demonstrating the achievements of our fantastic year group. Watching from the audience, staff felt exceptionally proud as students and Senior Students handed out trophies and awards to each other. 

The tradition of prize giving within King Edward’s is a long one. Many of the trophies have been awarded by former students and staff, proud of their association with the school, whilst others are proudly supported by The Foundation Governors, The Edwardians and Piramal. Once trophies have been awarded, every subject recognises and rewards excellent student progress and achievement. 

The evening was a huge success, interleaved with performances from our talented Music students. Beautifully singing a Taylor Swift song for us were Erin and Katharine; Lucy sang a wonderful rendition of the Sound of Music; the Chamber Choir performed California Dreamin’; whilst Will gave a stunning drum performance. The evening really was a true celebration of the year group, the Sixth Form and all that makes The King Edward VI School and Sixth Form the truly wonderful place it is. 

Congratulations to Year 13 student, Edward Gardiner, on his sporting successes this year.

Edward has competed in the U20’s Discus in the North East and County’s Championship, setting a personal best of 44.57m. Edward is now ranked 8th in the UK and has been invited to the English National Championships in July.

Edward was also selected to represent Northumberland as a second row in Rugby Union where he has competed against Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Well done Edward.

An experience of a lifetime! Our 6 students returned home having competed against Kenya’s and Uganda’s elite runners and future Olympic and World Champions. Our students came together with The Judd School from Kent to form a team to represent England at the ISF Schools World School Championships in Nairobi, Kenya. 23 countries from all around the world took part in this event that was hosted by Kenya and attended by the President of Kenya, William Ruto.

The Local Organising Committee and the ISF ensured that the attending countries competed in a championship worthy of their own Olympic and World Championships trials, and also experienced the culture and amazing hospitality of the people of Nairobi and Kenya. 

As part of the Championships experience, students were involved in the opening and closing ceremonies, educational workshops, tree planting,  friendship relays, Nation’s Night as well as visiting Nairobi’s famous National Park. Visiting school children embraced our athletes and welcomed us to their country – a truly memorable experience.

The England Team finished 6th out of 23 countries, with many of the countries entering their National selected elite teams. We also finished 2nd out of the European countries, with only Turkey – who were the current holders of the ISF title – narrowly beating us on points. Our KEVI team, in isolation, would still have taken 7th place in the main competition, which is a huge achievement. William De Vere Owen came 23rd, beating many of the elite selected athletes, Joe Dixon 39th, Bertie Marr 62nd, Elliot Mavir 89th closely followed by George Mavir 91st. 

We would like to thank all of the companies, organisations and individuals who donated and made this once-in-a-lifetime trip possible.

• Yr 12 Cameron Twynholm
• Yr 12 Charlie Thomson
• Yr 11 Alan Young
• Yr 10 George Ovenden
• Yr 9 Max Paterson.

Since they started fundraising 7 years ago, Year 10 student Helen and her younger brother Arthur, who will join us in September, have raised an astounding £10,000 for the RNLI.

In a special ceremony at the RNLI station at Newbiggin they were presented with commemorative gifts from RNLI Chief Executive Mark Dowie in recognition of their amazing fundraising efforts. 

During the presentation the two recollected on the many ways they have raised funds. Helen was asked where she got her inspiration for the venture replying “We’ve always liked sailing and the RNLI are a very important part of safety for boaters. To go out in all conditions takes incredible bravery and without the support of the general public, they wouldn’t be able to help those in need.” 

After the presentation they were given a guided tour around the station to look at the equipment and meet the volunteers. With support from the Newbiggin Heritage Partnership they were then taken on a special visit to the Newbiggin Rocket House and Newbiggin Maritime Centre. 

If you would like to find out more about Newbiggin lifeboat station, its volunteers and its heritage then take a look at the local website.