Over the last two decades or more, there has been a steady stream of a dozen Elthamians gaining places at Oxford and Cambridge each year, placing Eltham College well within the top 100 schools which together contribute 50% of the two universities’ students. This year we maintained our average, but with some more than average individual achievements. One of these was Robbie Jacobs’ award of a prestigious Choral Scholarship by King’s College Cambridge – the first ever for an Eltham student – and a place to read Music. Last year’s Head Prefect, Jamie Williams, not only secured a place to read Physics at Pembroke College Oxford, but a choral place at Queen’s College, thereby joining two other Elthamians who are already in the choirs at Queen’s and Worcester College.
The other successful Cambridge applicants were: Nathan Allen to read Natural Sciences at Peterhouse, Alex Cross to read Natural Sciences at Selwyn, Jason Leonard to read Mathematics at Sidney Sussex, Stephen Lenzi to read Natural Sciences at King’s, Rosie Wakeling to read Geography at Jesus. The other successful Oxford applicants were: Rachel Collins to read Mathematics at Merton, Tom Garton to read Modern Languages at St Catherine’s, Fleur Mason to read Geography at St John’s, Owen Thomas to read Physics at St Edmund Hall and Mark Warman to read Modern Languages at St Peter’s.
This year’s annual dinner was held in the Old Dining Hall at St Edmund Hall where 15 staff joined by most of the Oxford Elthamians and a handful who made the journey from Cambridge. Although the dinner, as always was excellent, it is the company that makes these occasions worthwhile: an opportunity to keep in touch, to share news and gossip, and for us staff – an opportunity to witness the transforming effect of a university education.
