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ONLINE 21 June 2018

Wandsworth and Croydon pupils attend Professor Stephen Hawking service

Pupils representing the four PACT Educational Trust Schools - The Laurels, Oakwood, The Cedars and Oliver House

Pupils from Croydon and Wandsworth schools were lucky enough to attend the Service of Thanksgiving for Professor Stephen Hawking at Westminster Abbey.

PACT Educational Trust were invited to send a pupil from Oliver House School, Clapham, Oakwood School, Purley, The Cedars School, Croydon, and The Laurels School, Wandsworth to the ceremony.

The students were selected for their interest and achievement in STEM subjects, and got to join the 1000 people who were attending the service on Friday, June 15.

Accomplished scientists, celebrities, students and members of the public were invited to join Professor Hawking’s family and friends at Westminster Abbey to give special thanks for his contribution to our understanding of science and to witness Professor Hawking’s ashes being interred next to other scientists, including Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton at the Abbey.

All attendees were reminded, through the contents of the service, that his was a life of searching for the truth in the field of cosmology while battling to overcome adversities.

21 June 2018

Wandsworth and Croydon pupils attend Professor Stephen Hawking service

Pupils representing the four PACT Educational Trust Schools - The Laurels, Oakwood, The Cedars and Oliver House

Pupils from Croydon and Wandsworth schools were lucky enough to attend the Service of Thanksgiving for Professor Stephen Hawking at Westminster Abbey.

PACT Educational Trust were invited to send a pupil from Oliver House School, Clapham, Oakwood School, Purley, The Cedars School, Croydon, and The Laurels School, Wandsworth to the ceremony.

The students were selected for their interest and achievement in STEM subjects, and got to join the 1000 people who were attending the service on Friday, June 15.

Accomplished scientists, celebrities, students and members of the public

were invited to join Professor Hawking’s family and friends at Westminster Abbey to give special thanks for his contribution to our understanding of science and to witness Professor Hawking’s ashes being interred next to other scientists, including Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton at the Abbey.

All attendees were reminded, through the contents of the service, that his was a life of searching for the truth in the field of cosmology while battling to overcome adversities.

Posted on June 20, 2018 FROM INSIDE CROYDON

Croydon pupils among guests at Hawking’s Abbey memorial

Four pupils from a group of independent schools based in Purley and

South Croydon were among the hundreds of specially invited

attendees at last Friday’s Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster

Abbey for Professor Stephen Hawking.

The pupils were chosen from Oakwood and The Cedars schools,

which are part of the PACT Educational Trust.

They were selected for their interest and achievement in STEM

subjects – that is, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

At the Abbey, they joined accomplished scientists, celebrities,

students and members of the public together with Professor

Hawking’s family and friends, at a service which gave thanks for his

unique contribution to our understanding of science.

During the service, Professor Hawking’s ashes were interred in the

Abbey, beneath a specially commissioned stone, and next to other

great scientists, including Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton.

Newton, like Hawking, was a previous holder of the Lucasian Chair

of Mathematics at Cambridge University, one of the most prestigious

academic posts in the world.

Professor Hawking died in March this year, aged 76, after a –

literally – stellar career researching the cosmos and theoretical

physics around black holes and time, and all while having been

diagnosed in his 20s with deadly early onset motor neurone disease.

Wheelchair-bound, hardly able to move and, eventually, denied even

the ability to speak, Professor Hawking proved to be a great

communicator about science, as he continued his work and did much

to interest the wider public in very complex work. His book A Brief

History of Time, published in 1988, has been translated into 35

languages and sold more than 20million copies.

He became so famous, and popular around the world, that he even

made cameo appearances on US television shows such as Star

Trek and Big Bang Theory and had a starring role in the opening

ceremony of the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

A spokesperson for the PACT schools said, “Through the inspiring contents of the service, the pupils

were reminded that Professor Hawking’s was a life of searching for the truth in the field of cosmology

and overcoming all adversities.”

PHOTOS FROM TOP: Genius: Professor Stephen Hawking, who died earlier this year Pupils from PACT schools arrive at Westminster Abbey. Photo by Ben Rix The memorial stone for Stephen Hawking in Westminster Abbey