It has been another excellent year at Bedford Modern School with individual and collective success on all fronts.
In August staff and students celebrated outstanding A Level results with a third of all students obtaining three A grades or better. An impressive 51% of grades achieved were A* - A, up 6% from last year and 83% were A* - B placing our results as the highest in the county.
During British Science Week talented Year 13 student Mohammed Akbor competed at The Big Bang Fair 2018 as a result of his potentially ground-breaking research into DNA recovery from fingerprints, a technique which could ultimately be used at crime scenes.
In March, a group of nine students claimed victory at the Combat Cadet competition; a first for BMS. The students demonstrated their military and leadership skills in a very demanding two-day long series of challenges against 18 other Army Sections of Eastern Region Cadet Forces.
More students than ever took additional weekly music, dance and speech and drama lessons this year. Our two large-scale musical theatre productions, West Side Story and Half a Sixpence were performed to full houses every night. Both the technical crew and band were student-led and the spectacular sets were designed and created in-house.
Nationally we saw Sixth Form students join the National Youth Music Theatre, perform with the National Youth Theatre, win places with the National Youth Choir and be accepted into the Chineke! Junior Orchestra. In the younger years Aidan Lynch in Year 7 became a British Ballet Organisation scholar and Year 11 student, Greg May’s composition was highly commended in the BBC Proms Inspire Competition.
Sport also played a key role in the life of the School. Eda Colliver (Year 11) took bronze as part of the England water polo team at the EU Nations Junior Women’s Tournament and in the English Schools Championship Finals our U15 girls came second.
Year 11 student Katie Sumner became the U16 Rugby Fives singles champion and our Year 13 boys swept the board on home ground in both the U18 doubles and singles tournaments at the Midlands Schools Regional Championships.
Hosting the launch of the Football Association’s (FA) Girls’ Football Week 2018 was a particular highlight as we invited local schools to join us and train with England Lioness, Laura Bassett; a once in a lifetime opportunity for many of them.