- Myton School

Dear Parents and Carers

I have met some inspirational students this week. We have been reporting some of the successes of our students over recent weeks and I have now had the pleasure of meeting a few of them. In each meeting I have been incredibly impressed by how modest they are and even more impressed at their resilience.

Tia Norton (Year 10) is the UK number one at padel tennis in all age groups. She also reached the world quarter finals for her own age group recently and is off to Portugal on Sunday to take part in the European Championships (the full adult version). Possibly due to modesty or managing her own expectations, she explained that she is travelling for the experience more than anything – we wish her well and look forward to her letting us know how she gets on.

Lucy McEvoy (Year 13) was recently selected to play for one of three England Teams in a hockey tournament against the Home Countries. Her team won and she is now looking forward to university hockey, possibly at Loughborough and the opportunities which come with it.

I enjoyed catching up with Jordan Kendall (Year 10) who reached the quarter finals of UK boxing in his weight. He believes his opponent in that bout was scored generously, which is an opinion I had heard from others who saw it, so has responded by training harder and seeking a rematch – an example of true resilience. I wish him well in that bout and in his quest to make it through the next round of assessments and be in the mix for Team GB in the future.

Another fantastic example of resilience came from Sam Parsons (Year 8) who, whilst representing the county at tennis, has made sure Warwickshire are UK champions in his age category. Sam played singles and doubles, in a similar arrangement to the Davis Cup, and won the tournament. Now he has moved up to the next age group and is the youngest there. His response is to work harder, especially on his serve which he demonstrated and explained how many different components there are to that one shot and how he is changing his style to add more power and rise through the rankings in his new age group.

Another impressive student is Louis Edwards in Year 13. I spent the most interesting hour hearing about his five-day tour of North Korea in the summer and looking at his photos and videos. Like many people, I often read about North Korea in the press, so to hear Louis’ account of his time in Pyongyang was fascinating. Louis has written about his trip in this week’s newsletter.

The resilience of these young people is what I think makes them stand apart and I am looking forward to meeting more of our successful students over the coming weeks, whether through sport, the arts, a vocation, charitable work or academia.