Sir John Talbot's School

Charlotte is currently in her second year at Harper Adams University studying a degree in agriculture and animal science

Jack was a student at Sir John Talbot’s School for his entire secondary school career, sitting his A Levels in Maths, Physics, Biology and Chemistry in 2010, and excelling in all. He then went on to study a master’s degree in Physics at Imperial College London before completing his PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Manchester in partnership with the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. In 2019, Jack headed to South Africa to work on the multibillion-pound radio telescope project known as the ‘Square Kilometre Array’, contributing to astrophysics research by increasing our knowledge of super-massive black holes and how they shape our galaxies. Before leaving for Pretoria, Jack spoke to students and guests at Sir John Talbot’s about the ‘invisible universe’ and advised our sixth formers on the university pathway. Here at Sir John Talbot’s School, we have been lucky that Jack has kept in touch with us, supporting our students with a series of talks, with personal statements and as an expert voice with some tricky A Level projects. Recently, Jack has shared an article which he published on black holes with our A Level students across the Marches Academy Trust and continues to support us with UCAS applications for Physics. We have created the Jack Radcliffe Award for Physics in Jack’s honour and he visited us with his wife Dhita to present the inaugural trophy. Dhita, herself a highly successful strategist and consultant, was kind enough to deliver an inspirational talk to our sixth formers about empowering women. Jack will always be a valued member of our community, and we hope to see lots more of him (and Dhita) in the future.

Sir John Talbot’s School alumni Sam Boardman has just graduated from the University of Birmingham, achieving a First Class Masters Degree in Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics! Sam is now going on to start his diploma, teaching Physics to secondary students in Birmingham, with the King Edwards Consortium. During his time at SirJohn Talbot’s Sam represented the school as Head Boy and has returned post leaving to occasionally help in the schools Maths Department from time to time.