The Purcell School > News > Weekly Highlights > Weekly Highlights 31st January

Weekly Highlights 31st January

Welcome to the latest edition of Purcell’s Weekly Highlights!

Jacob Collier Wins 3rd and 4th Grammy

Alumnus, composer and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier won two Grammys at last weekend’s 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. Jacob was awarded Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for Moon River, and Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for All Night Long. He is now a four-time Grammy recipient, earning at least one award for every album he has released to date. Watch Jacob’s arrangement for Moon River here. Our sincere congratulations to Jacob on this incredible achievement.

IMPULSE Outreach

Last Friday, as part of our IMPULSE Outreach programme, students spent the morning performing and putting on workshops at Highwood Primary School. The visit was exceptionally well received with a representative from Highwood thanking Purcell students for providing a ‘wonderful opportunity to see and listen to a wide range of different musical instruments, from oboes to bassoons. Very inspiring!’.

News from the Purcell Mathematics Department

The Purcell School Mathematics Department were very pleased to experience success in the recent UK Senior Mathematical Challenge (SMC). The SMC encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency using mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems. In recent years there have been 110,000 entrants from 2,200 schools and colleges, and awards are given to the top-performing candidates, with a very select few continuing to the next round (either the Kangaroo round or the prestigious Olympiad round).

Congratulations to our Bronze winners:

Yumeka Nakagawa (Y13)
Bethany Caswell (Y13)
Anna Graham (Y12)
Dana Holt (Y12)
Jonathan Knight (Y12)

Congratulations also to our Silver award winners, who performed in the top 30% of the country:

Chindana Nukulvutthiopia (Y13)
Bradley Ng (Y13)

Special congratulations to our Gold award winner, who performed in the top 10% of the country and also proceeded onto the Kangaroo round, scoring a merit!

Samuel Yuan (Y12)

Well done all for entering and we look forward to taking part next year!

Art Department Trips

Last week Years 8, 11 and 12 visited numerous galleries in London where they gathered sketches and inspiration for their upcoming projects. Year 8 visited Bridget Riley’s exhibition at the Hayward Gallery and National Gallery to familiarise themselves with her work and gain ideas and inspiration for our Bridget Riley project. Year 11 and 12 visited the Royal Academy of Arts where they viewed the Eco-Visionaries and Lucian Freud Exhibitions. They also visited The Halcyon Gallery and enthusiastically explored the interactive work from Dominic Harris and the sculpture work of Lorenzo Quinn. This jam packed and exciting day gave the pupils lots of ideas for their forthcoming projects. Furthermore Years 6 and 7 visited the William Morris Gallery where they learnt more about the artist and his work while participating in a printmaking workshop and creating some amazing pattern work.