Alumni News: Classics Achievements for Mara and Catherine

2022 Heritage Leaver Mara Pintece was recently recognised in this year’s Cambridge Classical Association Reading Competition, where she prepared and performed  a passage, in the original Latin, from ‘The Metamorphoses’ – a narrative poem written  by Roman poet Ovid over 2,000 years ago. Mara, who is currently studying A-Level Latin  at King’s Ely, entered the ‘Senior Verse’ category of the competition, which was held at the Cambridge University Faculty of Classics. She earned a ‘Highly Commended’ award for her performance, based on her pronunciation, scansion, and how well she performed and reflected the content of the poem.

And in another classical languages achievement, Catherine Rudge, also a 2022 Heritage Leaver, has been awarded first place in the Senior Greek Verse category of this year’s CAS Reading Competition at the University of Cambridge. Catherine is currently a Sixth Form pupil at the Leys, studying Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Greek. Mr Burden has clearly been preparing his pupils well for studying  the classics!

Alumni News: Fencing Silver for William

Earlier this year William Lauga, a 2021 Heritage Leaver, was selected to compete in the Cadet (under-17)  squads for the Commonwealth Fencing Championships 2022, which was held in London this past August. William, who currently trains with the London-based Newham Swords Fencing Club and previously with local club Cambridge Sword, took silver for England in the Cadet Junior Men’s Foil Team and 11th in the under-17 individual competition during the event. William, who began fencing at age 8, says ‘I have always been a fan of individual sports since its only up to you to win (and lose), but the main reason I like fencing is for the competitive side.  By nature I am very competitive so I love regularly being able to compete nationally and internationally.’

Featured Image: Heritage Alumnae Laura Burton earned a bronze for Great Britain at the World Rowing U19 Championships in Italy.

Alumni News: Laura Wins the Bronze in Rowing

This past summer, Heritage Alumnae Laura Burton earned a bronze for Great Britain at the World Rowing U19 Championships in Italy. During the women’s quadruple sculls final, she and her crew finished in an impressive 6 minutes 33.54 seconds, closely following behind first place Romania and second place Germany. This most recent victory for Laura comes after a busy 2021, during which she won in the girls’ singles sculls title at the National Schools Regatta in May and was selected for the British Rowing U19 squad winter training camp in December. Laura, a 2020 Heritage Leaver, attended sixth form at The Perse and is currently spending her gap year with the Leander Club’s prestigious rowing  programme in Henley.

Supporting Charities through Non Uniform Days

During this morning’s assembly, Junior Council members spoke to their fellow Infants and Juniors about UK charity BBC Children in Need. Noting that over 3.9 million children and young people across the UK are in poverty, the pupils described how Children in Need is helping to address this issue in a variety of ways; among them, by donating money to food banks and community kitchens, and providing essential items to families in difficult circumstances. In Cambridgeshire, Children in Need helps to fund counselling services to young people, support work around trauma, stress and social justice, practical and emotional support for very young children with difficult family lives, and bereavement support for young people. Tomorrow, Infants and Juniors are encouraged to participate in a non-uniform day in which the minimum donation of £1 per pupil will go towards this worthy cause. Children can wear their own clothes, with an optional ‘animal’ theme if they wish. Seniors will also be having their own non-uniform day on Tuesday, in support of Save the Children’s campaign to feed children suffering hunger in East Africa. Seniors should bring in £2 or more in cash to hand in during registration at the start of the day.

A Musical Start to the Week

This Monday, Infants and Juniors enjoyed some excellent musical performances by their classmates during the end of term Recital Assembly. Fourteen pupils played and sang the pieces they have been practicing on strings, woodwinds, voice and piano. The young musicians who participated represent just a fraction of the many at Heritage who are learning to play a musical instrument, either with our peripatetic music teachers or with outside lessons. 

As Mr Fletcher noted during the assembly, reading books and learning to play a musical instrument are two of the most valuable things that children can do from a young age. In fact, as outlined in this article from Tes magazine, ‘According to a growing body of scientific evidence, learning to play music, or learning to sing, is uniquely beneficial to students’ academic lives. Not only does it improve academic performance, but music learning also changes the brain and makes learning easier.’ Well done to all of the pupils who took part in the assembly, and to those who are taking the time to study and learn music. Keep up the good work!

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