Recently the Good Schools Guide published a series of awards for the first time, publicly acknowledging schools for excellence at A level in specific subjects. On the basis of our results in 2004, St Paul's came first in the "Best Independent School" category for Italian. The award was given on the basis of the following four criteria: 1. the popularity of the subject relative to that in similar schools 2. the subject results relative to those of the school as a whole 3. the numbers taking the subject, and 4. the absolute percentage of A and B grades. St Paul's has long been a centre of excellence for Italian, and this award is the icing on the cake in so far as the excellent results achieved by last year's Upper 8th are concerned. The challenge now is to maintain our position in the number one spot. I have every confidence in the current Upper 8th!