The NSB class of 2019-20 may forever be remembered in history as the cohort whose exams were cancelled by the pandemic but they will also be fondly remembered as one of the strongest year groups to have ever advanced through the five years of Lower School. As a year group they epitomised what NSB strives to achieve in all of our students; exceptional of attitude and character with the ability, determination and discipline to combine outstanding success both in the classroom and within the rich extracurricular programme of the school.

The cohort consistently backed up their excellent academic attainment with seismic achievements outside of the classroom in sport, music, dance and drama. This was the year group who reached an incredible six national finals in sport last year – football, rugby, basketball, water polo, cross country and athletics as well as consistently triumphing on the local, regional and national stage in the Arts.

I am again hesitant to highlight individual academic performances given the lack of public examinations this year, however Michael Tang, Lathusan Muraleetharan, Alphy Dennees, William Coull, Charles Byfield and Theo Broxton all deserve enormous credit for achieving a clean sweep of Grade 9s. Magiban Kogulavarathan also amply merits being highlighted for having the highest levels of progress from his Key Stage 2 SAT scores in Year 6 to his GCSE grades in Year 11.

We wish all of our Year 11 students the very best of luck in their future and we are delighted that so many of them will be returning to the NSB Sixth Form to continue with their studies, where they will no doubt continue to be such outstanding role models for the younger students.

Richard Bernard
Headmaster