.The NSB class of 2020-21 may forever be remembered in history as a cohort whose public examinations were cancelled but they will also be remembered as an outstanding year group who epitomised what NSB strives for all our students to achieve; exceptional of attitude and character with the ability, resolve and fortitude to overcome the towering challenges thrown at them by the pandemic and yet still excel academically.

The cohort also oozed talent outside of the classroom in sport, music, dance and drama and it has been a great shame that the out of classroom activities have been so limited for the boys in the last 18 months due to COVID-19. I am sure that those returning will be raring to rectify this in September when we hope to have the full NSB extra-curricular programme up and running.

Performance across the curriculum and across all abilities of students was extremely high. The two highest attaining students this year secured an incredible sweep of straight Grade 9s (equivalent to the former top A* grade) across the board which is a magnificent and exceedingly difficult achievement. Many congratulations to:

• Laxshan Rajaratnam who attained 12 Grade 9s (all subjects at Grade 9)
• Reuben Doy who attained 11 straight Grade 9s (all subjects at Grade 9)

A deserved mention also to the following students who achieved a fantastic 5 Grade 9s or more in their results:

• Calum Powell (11 Grade 9s)
• Daniel Wilkins (11 Grade 9s)
• Alex Do (10 Grade 9s)
• Charlie Packman (10 Grade 9s)
• Jewel Vincent (10 Grade 9s)
• James Kendrick (9 Grade 9s)
• Besnik Osmani (9 Grade 9s)
• Vinh Thi (9 Grade 9s)
• William Campion (8 Grade 9s)
• Ethan Blagdon (7 Grade 9s)
• Isaac Round (7 Grade 9s)
• Oliver Savage (7 Grade 9s)
• Peter van Uem (7 Grade 9s)
• Jesse Cooke (6 Grade 9s)
• Benjamin Davies (6 Grade 9s)
• Kieran Holds (6 Grade 9s)
• Nirujar Kogulavarathan (6 Grade 9s)
• Yazeed Onafeko (6 Grade 9s)
• Adam Tame (6 Grade 9s)
• James Taylor (6 Grade 9s)
• Barney Ballantine (5 Grade 9s)
• Marco Barnes (5 Grade 9s)
• Monik Patel (5 Grade 9s)

Monik Patel’s fine set of grades also placed him as the top performing student in terms of progress made from his KS2 SATs to his GCSE results.

We wish all our Year 11 leavers 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.

Richard Bernard

Headmaster

Northampton School for Boys