The Record 2014 - 2015

One constant feature of Teddies, in evidence from the very beginning, has been the drive and ambition of its pupils. So – what of our contemporary OSE? What sort of presence do they have in the wider world? Good exam results matter, of course, but they aren’t everything. We know that you go off to the very best universities. In fact, some 85% of you will attend the most prestigious universities in this country and overseas. But what then? As we say goodbye to this year’s Leavers, I want to give you a snapshot of the achievements of some of our recent former pupils. The network of former Teddies pupils spreads far and wide, across many fields of interest. In the armed forces we have 20 commissioned officers who have served in recent major conflicts. Captain Michael Dobbin was awarded the Military Cross in 2013 for service in Afghanistan. His citation read: ‘Dobbin’s repeated courage at pivotal moments and cool head under fierce fire inspired his men to succeed when the odds were most against them’. Professor Sir Brian Greenwood is a world expert in malaria. In 1995, he won a 40-million-dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to establish the Gates Malaria Partnership. He is currently working on an Ebola vaccine. Jon Snow is the longest-running presenter on Channel 4 News; Mark Peregrine is Head Tutor at the Cookery School at the Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons; James Price was recently named Young Farmer of the Year; record producer Hugh Padgham has won four Grammy Awards; Billy Lloyd is an award-winning designer and ceramicist; Isabel Fishlock works

with fashion designers John Galliano and Paul Smith; Rob Marris is MP for Wolverhampton South West and Cameron Buchanan the MSP for Lothian. So the list goes on. In sport, too, many OSE participate after they leave School and some have represented their country: Zoe Shipperley in hockey, James Forrester in rugby and Stewart Innes in rowing, to name just a few. Stewart won a Gold Medal in the GB men’s VIII at the Rowing World Cup in Italy a few weeks ago and is in the training squad for Rio 2016. Jockey SamWaley-Cohen won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and came second in the Grand National. A little known fact about Teddies’ sporting history is that three OSE were in the winning team at the World Ice Cricket Championships in Estonia in 2008. The talents in our community are clearly many and varied. I am pleased to note a strong sense of altruism running through everything I hear about our OSE. Tim Conibear formed the Isiqalo Foundation in South Africa in 2009 to use sports coaching to address substance abuse and mental health issues; Joe Robinson founded the charity JR4JR to support the Neurology Department at the John Radcliffe. Over the last 10 years, OSE have run over 150 marathons for charity, completed 11 ironman challenges, covered the distance from Land’s End to John O’Groats 16 times and have cycled more than 37,000 miles. That’s really quite something. In the 2010 London Marathon, 10 OSE set a world record of 5 hours and 13 minutes for the greatest number of people completing a marathon tied together - they raised a staggering sum of over £277,000.

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