On Friday 21st May, we said goodbye to our fabulous Year 13's – the Class of 2021. It's always a bitter-sweet time of year with laughter tinged with sadness particularly for those who had been at Pate's since Year 7. This year, once again, the pandemic cast a long shadow on education and we are all so proud of the students for their positivity and can-do attitude in the face of such uncertainty and change. They made a huge contribution to the school for which we are truly grateful.

Whilst the weather was not our friend on Leavers' Day, it certainly didn’t dampen the spirits in the Refectory!  A busy wet weather programme featured a special Leavers' Breakfast (kindly sponsored by the Pate’s Society), yearbook signings, hoodie handovers, an awards ceremony, BBQ, ice-cream van (with a socially distanced queue!) and an open mic session. With the leavers' song sung in the open air ably accompanied by staff members Sam Attwood, Rob Esswood and Mark Cratchley, it was a day of great celebration for a very special year group (236 is the largest year group Pate's has ever had!). 

Congratulations to the following students who received awards:

The Dean Stubbs Cup for Contributions to School Music – Ben Gilchrist and Isaac Fee
The John Elvan Rees Award for Contributions to School Music – Sam Gibson
The Pitman Cup for Sport – Tom Stevens and Hannah Jackson
The Andrew James Award for Art – Hannah Shakir-Apps
The Patesian Cup for Drama – Bryony Collishaw
The Star Linguist Award – Hannah Davie and Tally Panton
The Scheffer Cup for Contributions to the Pate’s Community – Scarly Knight
The Pate’s Ambassador Award (sponsored by the Pate’s Society) – Eloise Hughes and Rosie-Jane Widdowson
The Head Master’s Award – Finn Dawson, El Stiles, Paras Garg, James Brownlie and Hermione Flackett
The Alice Glenister Award – El Stiles
 

We wish our newest alumni all the very best for their future endeavours and very much hope that we can see them on 15th December for their first alumni event - the Christmas Reunion!