Beyond King’s

This week our former pupil is Nathan Mann (Cl 86-89) who has returned to King’s as this year’s new Academic Deputy Head of King’s St Alban’s. Nathan is delighted to be back at King’s and while he was here as a pupil he was captain of the 2nd XV and particularly enjoyed the trip to Normandy which he will now be involved with in his role at King’s St Alban’s. Following school, Nathan studied Law at University of Sheffield and worked in London and the Cotswolds in legal practices for several years before deciding to move to teaching. Nathan completed his PGCE at University of Worcester and began at King’s St Alban’s this September.

This week, it was wonderful to welcome award-winning tenor and opera singer, Allan Clayton (H 91-99) as the newest member of the Barnabas Group. Allan was Head Chorister at King’s and he also enjoyed being managing director of the Young Enterprise team and playing rugby and football. On leaving King’s, Allan studied at St John’s College, Cambridge and then at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

An Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and former BBC New Generation Artist from 2007-2009, Allan’s awards include “The Queen’s Commendation for Excellence” and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. Allan garnered huge praise as the lead role in Brett Dean’s Hamlet, which had its world premiere at Glyndebourne in June 2017. This performance gained rave reviews and saw Allan win several prizes and accolades including the 2018 Whatsonstage Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera. Allan’s awards are many, and recently they include 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Singer Award and Best Male Performer in Australia’s prestigious Helpmann Awards.  Allan was very warmly received here at King’s, treating us to an address in College Hall Assembly, a master class for U6 singers as well as an awe-inspiring recital for staff and students.

This week the Fourth Form joined in with Genes for Jeans Day and, keeping with the science link, our former pupil this week is Jonny Tye (Br 04-11). Jonny was a very active student at King’s taking part in School Council, Orchestra and was also a Monitor. Jonny represented Great Britain in flatwater kayaking during his time at school and in 2009 won bronze at the European Marathon Championships and in 2011 became a double Silver Medallist at the Marathon World Championships in Singapore. After studying Physics, Chemistry and Maths at A-level, Jonny went to the University of Surrey where he studied Mechanical Engineering. Jonny is still a keen sportsman and is now Director of his own business, Precision Hydration, which offers unique, personalised hydration solutions for athletes. They work with a long list of professional sports organisations like the Greenbay Packers (NFL), Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA) and England Rugby.

This week has seen staff and pupils at King’s having their new school photos taken by Beth Martyn Smith (Cl 00-05). Beth enjoyed her time at King’s and, after leaving in 2005 with a passion for photography, she was lucky enough to gain valuable experience working for established photographer, Tom Bader. He taught Beth a huge amount about photography both as an art form and as a business, and after three years she felt she had gained enough experience to set out on her own, so in 2008 Beth Martyn Smith Photography was born.

Now, in 2018, we are delighted to say the business is still growing. Beth has a studio based in Worcestershire and she continues to work closely with many local schools, businesses and theatres, as well as photography for weddings, family portraits and other commercial projects around the country.

We are back after the glorious summer holidays and our first former pupil for the new academic year is Lizzie Fry (Cr 07-14) who appeared this week on University Challenge. As a King’s student, Lizzie competed in numerous quiz competitions which were the foundation for her going on to University Challenge. She also enjoyed playing hockey and football at King’s.

After leaving King’s, Lizzie took a gap year, spending time in a research station in Brazil, working in the ecology and transportation departments of Atkins, a consultancy firm that specialises in design, engineering and project management.  Lizzie is set to return to this role after sitting her final Geography exams at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Whilst at University, Lizzie has taken up cricket, earning a Full Blue upon playing for Oxford in the Varsity match against Cambridge. We look forward to following Lizzie and her team’s progress in University Challenge after a first round win against York University.

It is the final week of the school year and the Pre-U Art Exhibition is currently on display in the Sir Terry Frost Gallery & Art School Studios, featuring fantastic work that the Upper Sixth pupils have created. OV Richard Gill (Cl 87-92) always had a keen interest in art whilst at King’s winning the school art prize in his final year; he was also a member of the rowing 1st IV and 2nd XV rugby teams. Following school, Richard went on to study Art Foundation at Cheltenham College of Art and then studied at the prestigious Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London.

Richard is now an artist based in Worcestershire and is represented at several Galleries around London and the Midlands, with collectors of his work all over the world. He specialises in larger paintings expertly capturing the movement of horses, dancers and skiers and often using gold and silver leaf in his compositions. Richard’s children are following in his footsteps and he is now a current senior school parent.

This week the OV Professions Group was launched and our former pupil this week is Andrew Underwood (S 77-88) who has initiated this programme with the King’s Foundation Development & Alumni Relations office. Andrew hosted this first session at his company’s Mayfair office, which focused on those working in Audit, Advisory, Tax and Pensions.  At school, Andrew was very proactive, captaining the 1st XI cricket and 2nd XV rugby teams and he was also a school monitor and Head of School House. On leaving school, Andrew went to South Bank University to study Business Management before starting his Operations Consulting career with Ernst & Young in 1998. He moved to KPMG in 2006 where he is now a Partner and leads KPMG’s UK Supply Chain team and is a member of KPMG’s Global Operations Leadership team. Andrew is also a trustee of the King’s School Development Trust and has just been appointed as a governor at King’s School.

This week the Fourth Form have been busy preparing and delivering fantastic performances of ‘The Railway Children’. Our former pupil this week is Jennifer Suggitt (Co 91-93) who threw herself into drama activities during her time at King’s helping to teach, act and was an active member of the Cinema Club. After King’s Jennifer attended Royal Holloway College, University of London and studied English Language and Literature.

Jennifer worked for BskyB as Affinity Brand Marketing Manager and then as Corporate Relations Manager for Historic Royal Places – where she set up the Corporate Fundraising function –  before becoming Head of Corporate Relations at the British Museum where she has been for 11 years.  Major successes for Jennifer as part of her current role include securing exhibition sponsorships with Morgan Stanley for The First Emperor exhibition in 2007, which attracted 850,000 visitors and the recent American Dream exhibition in 2017. Both went on to win industry awards including the Arts & Culture award at the 2018 Sponsorship Awards.

This week sees the Lower Fourth embarking on Geography Field trips. OV Roger Bivand (Cl 61-68) is returning for the years of 67-69 OV reunion this Saturday, and showed some aptitude for Geography whilst at King’s. On leaving King’s, Roger gained an Exhibition and studied Geography at the University of Cambridge and then completed a PhD at London School of Economics and a post-doctoral habilitation degree at Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna?, Poland, all in Geography. A-level project fieldwork in Norway and marrying a Pole appear to have had geographical consequences too. Following academic positions in Pozna? and Bodø, Norway, Roger became a Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen, Norway in 1996 and is still working there.  Roger specialises in statistical software development for spatial and geographical data, using the R Language, and he is an ordinary member of the R Foundation. As well as being much in demand to lead PhD courses in applied spatial data analysis, Roger is also editor of several journals, including the ‘Journal of Statistical Software’ and ‘The R Journal’. He gave a keynote the European R Users Meeting in Budapest in May this year.