Our current Gap Year student Nikia Briazghin leaves us today and Garrod Musto said the following words at his last staff meeting.

Nikita joined Kingswood in September 2022, just seven months after war broke out in his homeland. He arrived as part of the HMC scholarship programme, a quiet and uncertain student from Ukraine, stepping into a new world far from home. He joined Middle House as a boarder, and from the very beginning, he showed a quiet determination. Studying Maths and Computer Science in a second language is no small feat—especially when he thought it would be English and ended up with me teaching through Welsh!

But Nikita adapted. He grew. He learned. And more importantly, he gave back. He has been the recipient of great kindness here—kindness from his peers in Middle House, from the Kingswood community, and possibly one of the kindest acts I have witnessed in the past 12 months, from Andrew, our Headmaster, whose support and compassion helped Nikita feel at home and offered him a place as a gap student at Kingswood when he had nowhere to go.

But what’s remarkable is how Nikita has returned that kindness tenfold. Many of you won’t know this—because he didn’t want it widely shared—but this year, Nikita quietly created a Sunday activity for local Ukrainian families in the Pavilion. With the help of Mako and Sophie Stanley, he provided a space where parents could share a coffee and some adult time, while he and a group of students entertained the children. It was a beautiful act of service, born from empathy and pride in his roots.

Nikita is fiercely proud of his Ukrainian heritage. He is a keen follower of global politics and during his time at Kingswood visited the US several times to attend global student events at the UN and more widely a Global Peace Conference in New York. He carries the weight of his experiences with grace, and he channels them into action, into kindness, into connection.

After being turned down by a number of institutions in America due to shifts in global policy towards a number of different international students this year, Andrew made the decision that as a community the right thing to do was keep Nikita in our special community and help him to find the right path. Therefore he returned to Kingswood not as a student, but as a gap student in the Association Department and working alongside me as a teaching assistant in mathematics and computer science. That transition is never easy—balancing the mindset of a student with the responsibilities of a staff member. But Nikita has done it brilliantly. Whether crunching alumni data for Michele or supporting students in the classroom, he has been a valuable asset. So much so that “Mr Nikita,” as he’s now known, received three cards signed by every member of his classes. He has built a quiet, genuine rapport with his students—one that speaks volumes about his character.

And while many of you know Nikita as quiet, perhaps even a little shy, there’s another side to him. I’ll never forget Christmas Day—after a few ciders—when he spoke at length with my children about his experiences in Ukraine and the UK. He even helped my son Jake impress a colleague at his holiday job by teaching him some… let’s call them “interesting” Ukrainian phrases. That moment of laughter and connection was pure Nikita—thoughtful, generous, and just a little mischievous.

Over the past three years, I’ve watched Nikita grow—not just in height, though he has definitely grown there too—but in confidence, in maturity, in spirit. As Michele eloquently put it, He came to us as a boy, and he leaves us as a man. A man who laughs at my jokes now. A man who chats in the lunch queue. A man who has learned to speak up, to lead, to care.

He’s off to Riga in September, having applied to nearly 60 institutions across the US, Canada, and Europe. And he’s found the perfect course—the one that excites him, challenges him, and fits him best. He’s not settling for second best. He’s stepping into something truly exciting.