The Lion - Issue 32

Bablake School newsletter Issue 32

December 2003

BablakeSchoolnewsletter Diary Dates Tuesday 6th January 2004 Entrance Exam Wednesday 7th January Spring Term begins Thursday 22nd January PA AGM Tuesday 27th January Music concert Thursday 5th February Careers convention Monday 16th February Half term week begins Saturday 28th February Former Pupils’ Annual Dinner Saturday 13th March PHAB Ball Tuesday 30th March *Easter Concert Thursday 1st April End of spring term Tuesday 20th April Summer term begins *The Easter Concert will be in memory of Krystyna Beech, Former Pupil 1993-2000, who died tragically last summer.

During the half-term holiday the U14 rugby team undertook a short tour to the Isle of Man. The boys stayed at King William College on the island and played two matches against King William College themselves and against Castle Rushen High School. In the first match the boys failed to play to their potential and eventually lost.

However the team performance was greatly improved in the second match and led to five tries by centre Rhys Horton. Bablake won this match.

Whilst on the island the boys also visited Castle Rushen and went on a tour which included a visit to the House of Manahan, an interactive centre highlighting the history of the Island from Pagan days to the present.

County Selection Congratulations should go to all boys who have gained representative honours at rugby this term and particularly to those boys who have been selected for Warwickshire. At U18 level Bablake boys have been particularly successful with Luke Harris, Craig Higgins, Charles Antrobus, Ben Hands and Charles Hands all representing the county.

Bablake

U14 tour to the Isle of Man

Navroop Matharu was made captain of the Warwickshire U16 side and was joined in the team by Jevon Thorpe.

William Owen and Alex Kantor were both selected for the ‘B’ team.

At under 15 level Ryan Birch, Brett Chatwin and Lee Harrison have all made the County Squad for the first time.

Congratulations should also go to Mark Lam, Ross Harrison, Andrew Hextall, Bharat Joshi and Oliver Millerchip who were all selected to represent Coventry District in the Warwickshire Tournament held at Princethorpe College on Sunday 30th November. During the tournament Coventry drew two matches and lost one.

Bablake School newsletter

December 2003

Barcelona Art Trip At the beginning of half term, students studying A Level Art and Design travelled to the wonderful Spanish city of Barcelona for five days of Gaudi, Picasso and Dali delights.

Bablake

The flight went well and we arrived at our hotel in the evening. After a meal we sampled ‘evening Barcelona’ with a walk along Las Ramblas and a drink in a nearby bar.

On our first full day after a hearty breakfast, we walked to the marina and then on to the Picasso Museum. The Museum was amazing as it was great seeing the early work displayed along with the more Picasso associated ‘cubist style’. The students worked well sketching and adding to their sketchbooks. Everybody got soaked as the heavens opened walking back to the hotel. In the evening a prize was awarded for the best sketch. (Not watercolour!)

Day three was ‘Gaudi Day’. And the sun was hot!

Fourth Year Artists visit The British Museum, London On Friday 19th September, the Fourth Year art students visited the British Museum in London. This visit gave them the opportunity to gather and record information from the wealth of artefacts on show there.

In the morning the pupils studied work in the African galleries which included sculpture, textiles, and graphic arts. In the afternoon it was the turn of the ancient Egyptians. The museum has the largest and most comprehensive collection of ancient Egyptian material outside of Cairo, and illustrates every aspect of the culture, from the predynastic period down to the Coptic (Christian) period, a time span of over 5000 years.

We travelled by the immaculately kept underground to Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece Sagrada Familia. Once again the pupils used their time to add to their sketch book and take photos. We even bumped into Mr Appleby in the Cathedral. In the afternoon the artists went up the hill to Parc Guell while the Technology students visited the Barcelona Pavilion designed by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In the evening some pupils went in to the city centre while a group visited the large Imax cinema in the marina complex.

Our final day was designated ‘Dali Day’.

We travelled by coach up the coast to the birthplace of the flamboyant Catalan artist Salvador Dali. This is situated in the town of Figueres.

An excellent museum complete with music, optical illusions and bizarre illustrations.

In the evening we all ventured out to the centre of Barcelona and eventually ended the evening in the Irish bar....deciding to leave when the Norwegian Navy on shore - leave arrived!

Back in the classroom, the students are now working on projects that have been influenced by their visit.

Good Journey home, excellent company, excellent trip.

Excellent really.... Cold when we got back to the UK!

Mr M Warner

Mr M Warner

Christmas Fayre Thank you to everyone who helped or supported the Parents’ Association Christmas Fayre and Prize Draw. It was a wet and cold day outside but the activities and buzz both in the main school and in the dining room was tremendous. Whilst we cannot give a final figure yet, the event raised something approaching the target of £5000.

We are grateful to everyone who sent in donations of items for sale, prizes, bottles, cakes and jams, and to

everyone who came to buy or win the items. Special thanks to those who helped set up or serve on stalls - your help was invaluable. Look out for details of a meeting next term to discuss PA events and activities. We need everyone to feed in their ideas and suggestions. Finally, we wish you all a very happy Christmas.

The Parents’ Association Committee

Bablake School newsletter

December 2003

Textiles Trip to Museum of Textiles and Fashion, London

Perhaps a little colour is something of an understatement. Zandra herself has always been a very colourful character and her hair, once green, is now a permanent pink. As we approached the building we could not be in any doubt as to which one it was; amidst the yellow London brick, pinks and oranges were visible from some way off. The interior glowed in similar shades and we were told that these extended to all floors including, of course, Zandra’s apartment on the top floor.

Our visit began with a fascinating account of Zandra’s career including tips on how she designs. The Fifth Year found this of particular interest as they are currently completing the design process in their coursework. We then spent

DEBATING AND PUBLIC SPEAKING A number of pupil teams have made their debating and public speaking debuts for the school this term. Guy Lewis, Harriet Harmon and Daniel Jackson spoke at the British Professional Women's Schools competition in Nuneaton in November. Their title was 'Apathy: Who Cares Wins'. They did not qualify for the next round, but they were commended by the adjudicator on a fine performance. Later in the month, at the British Midland Schools’ Competition, Catherine Bufton and Claire Laverick debated the motion 'Computers are a threat to Civilisation' and defeated a team from King Edwards Five Ways School in the subsequent vote. Finally, a Lower Sixth Form pairing of Jonathan Thompson and Richard Ball opposed our Fifth Formers Conor Doherty and Amun Sachdev in the Cambridge Union Competition. All four boys performed very well but lost out on selection for the second round to a very strong quartet from Derby Grammar School.

Mr G Park

quite some time studying the seventy ‘favourite’ garments on display. Each designer had explained (in bright orange plastic letters) why that particular dress meant so much to them. We saw everything from the most elegant to the most outrageous. Many garments were displayed as if floating from the ceiling with a gentle breeze creating movement.

Bablake

On a rather cold Tuesday morning during half term a group of fourteen of Bablake’s best set off from Coventry station to visit London’s newest museum.

Zandra Rhodes has for many years had ambitions to display contemporary fashion and focus on some of the more important designers of the day. In May of this year her ambitions were finally realized when Princess Michael of Kent opened this museum, bringing a little colour to Bermondsey.

The pupils said that they found the visit inspirational, not only for their coursework but also for career opportunities.

The day was rounded off with a brief visit to the Victoria and Albert museum before the still amazingly lively, but very well behaved group made their way back to a decidedly unpink Coventry.

Mrs D Surgey

Shares for schools

Bablake School Investment club is a new venture for this academic year. It involves four students using real money and investing it in the London stock exchange. The students, Anthony Simons, Ravi Pau, Annieka Bullas and Sukhdeep Jagait, are all members of the Lower Sixth Form and are studying Business Studies and/or Economics.

The students have been sponsored by four extremely generous companies and also the school itself. The team was selected by Shares4Schools, the company running the project, to receive £750 sponsorship so in total the team has raised £1500 sponsorship for investment in the stock market.

will be announced as the winner.

The aim is provide young people with a greater knowledge of economics and the market system while working in a team environment.

Sponsors: Shares4Schools, Bablake School, Burgis and Bullock, Hacker Young, Govind Health Surgery

The project will run from November 2003 to June 2004.

The team that has the most money at the end of its period

Mort

We finally managed to put on our production of ‘Mort’ in the first week of this half term and inevitably it was the success we all hoped it would be. The longest play in terms of rehearsal period, the most technically complicated, and the most fraught with difficulties. There will be a full report in next year’s Wheatleyan, so all that needs to be said here is that it provided excellent acting and technical opportunities, and many of the outstanding performers, as a result of being in ‘Mort’, are keen to stay involved in school drama. People sometimes ask, “What will you do when the Sixth Form leave and your best actors move on?” The answer is that there will always be a new batch of performers, and we will always be looking ahead.

Mr D Prescott

Bablake School newsletter

December 2003

CéCé Sutton was crowned winner of the 2003 Bablake Charity 'Fame Academy' by the narrowest of margins over Beth Mills in a fantastic finale.

Amazingly, the public vote cast 119 votes for both CéCé and Beth, leaving the judges to vote by 3 to 2 in CéCé's favour.

Earlier, another £120 had been raised for 'Seeds for Africa' as the crowd had been royally entertained by all 5 finalists and a guest appearance from Staff Club 8.

CéCé set the show off with Pink's 'Get the party started' and once again sang confidently and powerfully, showing the full range of her voice. With the elder judge professing this had got his feet tapping, the party had truly started.

And if the crowd had been entertained in the previous round by the master rapper of the Fourth Year, Somiet Sidhu, his final performance brought the house down. Dressed as mini Ali G, his rap medley was innovative and slick and he even cajoled a crew of rappers to strut on stage. The people's favourite had only made the contest even harder for the singers to come.

Rebecca Simmons bravely sang Mariah Carey's 'Hero' and you could feel the crowd willing her on for what is an incredibly difficult song to deliver with its vast array of ranges. The judges felt Becky performed really well but had set herself a very hard challenge.

Beth Mills, with fantastic crowd support, sang 'Breathless' by the Corrs - it was a song that some of the judges found less appealing than others but they recognised that technically Beth delivered it excellently.

And so Rebeka Healy and Jessica Long closed the first half with an excellent version of Alanis Morrisette's 'Ironic'. Each singer conveyed their own passion for the song with great solo parts while also harmonising really well.

As the judges each cogitated and deliberated over which two finalists should remain, a motley crew of staff disguised by wigs and costumes stormed onto stage. It became apparent that Staff Club 8, abandoned at a late hour by certain male Historians, consisted of Messrs Dhanda, Johnson, McDermott and Warner attempting to serenade Miss East, Miss Hall, Mrs Harris and Mrs Scott. Bravely they reached for the stars, bravely Mr Dhanda collapsed in a stage slide and how the crowd roared for more! In the morning, it will be aches

Bablake

CHARITY 'FAME ACADEMY' THRILLER!

and strains and attempts to regain the respect of their colleagues! They were excellent and thank goodness they only mimed the song!

It was then the horrible moment when the judges had to disappoint three of the finalists and 'send them home'- it had been a near impossible task to separate them but CéCé and Beth won through to a final round. Now it was over to the people to decide or so we thought!

Beth encored with 'Heaven', the track which had swayed the crowd in the previous round. She sang it perfectly and made it her own song. With the pressure very much on, CéCé showed no nerves at all and even treated the audience to a new song, Michael Jackson's 'Heal the world'. Again, she performed superbly and very much made the song her own. This final round had been fantastic!

So the crowd filed out to cast their votes. No-one was prepared for the outcome of the vote but it spoke volumes for the performers and the crowd's brilliant response to them. It was heartbreaking for the judges to have to convene again to separate the finalists especially when both had been excellent. Maybe it was CéCé's decision to sing a new song or maybe it was her youth that swayed the final vote. Whatever the decision, it is a cliché but....

EVERYONE who participated was a winner!

Roll on the 2004 heats? Start practising now!?

(An especial thank you goes to Mr Prescott and Mr Taylor whose technical arrangements made the event very special.)

Sixth Form Mock Interview Morning

Once again, we are indebted to the 73 professionals who volunteered to come and give our U6th a practice interview in preparation for future tests with Universities and graduate employers.

All students were requested to submit a CV, Press Release and UCAS form before being examined by a panel of interviewers and an individual interviewer. The experience was invaluable and as ever all parties rated the morning a success.

Mr M Woodward

Bablake School newsletter

December 2003

As the school entered the second week of the October half term break, the adventures had only just begun for the CCF. Thirty nine eager cadets paraded at school, smartly dressed in their uniforms. All were eagerly looking forward to the three day Autumn Camp, filled with both military and adventure training. There was an especially impressive turnout from the New Fusiliers, excited with anticipation about their first time away with the Contingent.

Upon arriving at Nesscliffe Army Base, the first task was to set up camp – yes, both cadets and staff were to sleep ‘under the stars’ for the duration, even though we all knew that the weather forcast was to expect hail, sleet, frost and possible snow flurries. We quickly put up the tents, secretly hoping that the weather would be kind to us.

Throughout the rest of the day, cadets revised the importance of camouflage and concealment and how to patrol at night – vital skills that they would need after a hearty supper of stew and dumplings, expertly cooked by Lt Masters.

With bellies full, the cadets put on plenty of warm, waterproof clothing and awaited their first mission – ‘Exercise Night Lantern’. The cadets had to move from one end of an open field to the other, trying to get as close as possible to a lantern positioned on a hill, without being spotted by enemy forces. It was pitch black and as the cadets stealthily moved across the field, they soon realised what they were crawling through; the previous occupants had been a herd of cows! Nevertheless, they all battled on and accomplished their mission.

The cadets were woken early the next morning and assembled for breakfast, prepared once again, by Lt Masters, who was becoming quite expert at slaving over a hot stove! This time it was beans and tomatoes, mopped up with copious amounts of bread. After eating, the first exercise of the day was a ‘short’ run around the camp to find and collect a twenty-four hour ration pack, which would make up their meals for the rest of the camp. They then enjoyed a day of climbing and abseiling as well as further military training, which would be once again vital for the night ahead.

Bablake

CCF

After tea, the cadets grouped in their sections and awaited their second mission. This time, they had to recce a nearby area, looking for any signs of enemy forces. On returning to camp, all information concerning the enemy was to be pooled by the sections; number of enemy seen, clothing, equipment and activity. Good observational skills were going to be needed. Due to the darkness of the night, cadets were somewhat disorientated, and after setting off on their patrol, some sections found themselves at the start point ten minutes later! Back on the correct route, they were soon patrolling and battling through mud, trees, shrubs and ‘haunted’ buildings, looking out for any enemy movement. The rather ‘sympathetic’ enemy turned a blind eye (and ear) to the screams and yelps that cadets made as they got stuck in mud, slid over, or bumped into each other. Upon returning to camp, the enemy information was gathered. SSI Robson asked the following question– “How many enemy did you see? The cadets answers ranged from four to twelve, however, the actual number was two! Fun was had by all and, as the temperature began to drop rapidly, all cadets were keen to get into their tents and warm up.

The final morning proved to be VERY cold. There had been an overnight frost and cadets found it rather strange to unzip and open completely frozen tents. As they braved the cold weather, the camp was cleared and soon we were travelling back to school, with heaters on full blast, in the minibuses.

The camp was very enjoyable for all those who participated. We look forward to the new year and cadets have already received their 2004 events calendar, which highlights all the dates for camps, competitions and range days for the forthcoming year.

Capt Hall

Bablake School newsletter

December 2003

Twelve intrepid students spent a week at Manor Adventure in Shropshire at half term. They were entertained and challenged by such activities as a Blind Obstacle Course, the Underground Maze, Raft Building, Rock Climbing, the Assault Course, Fencing, Archery, Shooting, Canoeing, Kayaking, Abseiling, solving Initiative Puzzles, Night Orienteering, Hill Walking over the Long Mynd and learning Survival Skills.

The students had a great time and it is hoped that this trip will become a regular feature of the school calendar. The trip for October 2004 is already being planned.

T Hyde

Bablake

LOWER SCHOOL TRIP TO MANOR ADVENTURE

The Star Dome Business Studies visit and guest speaker Peugeot Visit Upper Sixth Business Studies students recently made a visit to the Peugeot Plant at Ryton. The plant produces 5000 206 models a week and is working pretty near to capacity.

Pupils and staff were overawed by the size and sophistication of the operation, and the flexibility in which models, colours and engine specifications were catered for. Over half of the factory's output is exported to Europe and elsewhere.

Students conducted themselves in an exemplary fashion, asking interesting and challenging questions. A number were seriously attracted by the incomes some of the employees at Ryton were earning. Two hours rushed by and the factory tour was completed, like a great deal of the stock control - just in time. A big thanks to our three guides for such an enjoyable and informative visit.

Visit of Mr Peter Wyhinny, Director of VW Commercial Vehicles Mr Peter Wyhinny made a return visit this year by popular demand. He gave a presentation to two Upper Sixth Business groups on Marketing Strategy.

The talk was most interesting and informative, and was interspersed by numerous student questions. These may have been partially encouraged by the wide range of VW promotional gifts on offer to the most prolific questioners!

Mr Wyhinny managed to enhance what is generally quite a theoretical part of the course on business strategy with some excellent case study examples. He also took part, without preparation, in a Lower Sixth Q & A session which the students found highly informative.

Our sincerest thanks to Peter Wyhinny for giving up his valuable time and spending an entire morning with the Department.

On Thursday 20th November the skies really did fall in at Bablake School. We were lucky enough to have the experience of being visited by the National Space Centre’s planetarium. They brought with them one inflatable planetarium and one eager teacher. As we waited in the hall, eagerly inspecting the peculiar dome shape with its long tunnel and bright lights, we all wondered what exactly was in there waiting for us. As we took our shoes off we were told how to enter the dome, it was crawling on our hands and knees through the tunnel filled with flashing lights, for obvious reasons all the boys had to crawl in first and the girls then after. Once inside it was a large dome with a projector setup on one of the sides and in the middle was the instructor at a make shift-desk with her laptop. As we were told about how stars were formed and how far stars were away from earth, we were shown this at the same time by the projector. Then came the fun bit where all the lights in the dome was turned off and the whole dome turned into a star filled sky. We were then shown some of the various star consolations and the main stars. It was very nice being able to see the stars without having to be outside in the cold and dark, and of course it guaranteed that the sky would be clear. The space dome was very interesting and informative - it was something new and different and we enjoyed it very much. It helped explain the tricky space and astronomy concepts without spending painstaking lessons in the classroom. I am sure all the other classes enjoyed it as much as our class did. I am sure everyone will join me in saying thankyou to the space centre and Mr McDermott for organising this event.

Edward Hunter

Bablake School newsletter

Girls’ Sport

December 2003

Music Activities Autumn Concert

The U18 Hockey squad reached the final round of the Warwickshire Hockey

A good and enthusiastic audience turned up to hear the

Tournament before half term. They had a superb game against Rugby School

Bablake musicians. The orchestra was in particularly good

and won 2-1, followed by a goalless draw against Twycross House and Rugby.

form with three pieces from different parts of Europe, the

This secured second place in the tournament and gave Bablake a place in the

Hungarian flavour of the Intermezzo from Kodaly’s ‘Hary

Midlands Finals. The Midlands finals were held on the last Sunday of the two

Janos’, which gave opportunities for solos from clarinettist

Bablake

Hockey

week half term break, so three training sessions were organised during this

Jeremy Bufton, Rachel Taggart on horn and Chloe

time. The girls’ commitment and work rate were excellent. They performed

Whittle on flute, the Spanish lilt in Turina’s ‘Clowns’ and

very well against all five teams in their section, but struggled to finish off their

the Norwegian bustle in Grieg’s ‘March of the Dwarves’.

chances with goals. They lost to Wrekin 1-0, Bedford High and Trent 2-0, and drew 0-0 with Newcastle-under-Lyme and 1-1 with Worksop.

The Jazz band played the traditional ‘When the Saints’

with a great improvised solo from Gemma Brown, and an intriguing version of Bach’s ‘Toccata and Fugue’. The

The U16 Warwickshire indoor competition was rather exciting and the girls

choirs were also on good form despite numbers reduced

were determined to qualify for the next round of this National competition

by illness. The chorale sang three Hungarian Folk songs by

after just missing out in the outdoor competition. They successfully came

Matyas Seiber accompanied by second former Michelle

through their section and met Princethorpe in the final. Bablake went up 1-0,

Jie. The Chamber Choir sang Psalm 23 by Howard

and then conceded a goal. The same happened again, but a splendid goal by

Goodall, better known as the theme tune to ‘The Vicar of

Jenna Thompson sealed a 3-2 victory, to take Bablake through to the zone

Dibley’, the Banquet Fugue by Rutter and the Drinking

county round of the Midlands. Here they met very strong competition from

Song from ‘The Liverpool Oratorio’ by Paul McCartney. We

other county winners but sealed their place in the Midlands round with an

then had had our fill of food and drink. The Bablake Choir

emphatic victory over Bromsgrove School 4-1, this after being 1-0 down. Two

finished the evening off with two opera classics, the

goals each from Sarah Mills and Stacie McDermott capped an outstanding

‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves‘ from Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’ sung

team performance. The next round takes place in early January in Birmingham.

in Italian and the ‘Habenera’ from Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ sung in

The U14 Warwickshire tournament was also an exciting competition. Bablake were undefeated and conceded no goals. They beat Stratford Grammar and Kineton 1-0 and drew their other two matches against King Henry VIII and

French with Sarah Potter as the capricious soloist complete with fan and flower.

Sarah also featured earlier in a recorder duet with Naomi

King’s High 0-0. However on goal difference Bablake just missed out reaching

Brown. Sean Clothier in his own inimitable way sang and

the final to King’s High.

played on the piano a song by Ben Folds Five called ’Philosophy‘. The instrumental soloists were Jessica

Loughborough Festival

Ramus, with a spirited performance of Bartok’s Romanian Dances for violin, Chris Parker with a fluent rendering of

This was an appalling day in terms of the weather but three teams, U12 & U13

Teleman’s Viola Concerto and sensitive flute-playing by

netball and U15 hockey travelled to Loughborough. The hockey team missed

Chloe Whittle in three movements from Rutter’s ‘Suite

out on reaching the semi-finals by just one goal. A little disappointing as they

Antique’.

had beaten the overall winners in their section. The U13 netball team won their section comfortably then played King’s High in their semi-final and lost 7-10.

The U12 team went one better and came runners up in the competition after losing to King’s High by just one goal 4-5. It had been a wet and cold day but the girls (and some staff) were more interested in the Rugby World Cup Final than their own sport. They were over the moon when England won – weren’t we all!

Netball The U16 and U14 teams played in the Coventry Schools’ tournaments. Both A and B teams in each age group emerged as winners. The A teams went forward to represent the city in the Greater Warwickshire finals. In this event the U16s were again victorious and the U14s were runners-up. This means that both teams go forward to represent the area in the West Midlands finals to be held in January.

The music department also provided singers for the

Christmas Fayre and an evening organised by Guy Salmon Jaguar in December.

Young Writers

Congratulations go to the following Bablake pupils who have gained regional prizes for their poems which were published in Zodiac West Midlands Volume 1.

First prize for the region; Saba Ghadimzadeh who wins a cheque for £20.

Runners Up: Melissa Walton, Thomas Bend and Luke Stefaniak who all receive book tokens.

Bablake School newsletter

December 2003

STAFF NEWS

AS and A2 modules begin for the L6 and U6 almost immediately on our return next term. For the Upper Sixth (A2 exams) we will allow the usual morning off before an afternoon exam or an afternoon off before a morning exam. For the Lower Sixth (AS) exams there will be no time off lessons. Students frequently ask why we don’t allow more time: the answer is that even though many Lower Sixth and particularly Upper Sixth formers are taking a considerable number of these winter modules, we have to keep moving forwards towards those synoptic papers in the summer for the Upper Sixth and the final AS exams for the Lower Sixth. These are so important that we simply cannot sacrifice three weeks of teaching. So we have to be slightly tough and make sure that students can keep learning in lesson time, even if homework for a week or two is constrained by the need to revise for modules.

This year twenty of the Upper Sixth have applied to either Oxford or Cambridge to read a wide range of degrees from October 2004. They have been attending interviews at the Colleges of their choice and we will know the outcome of these early in the New Year.

Every year the Mathematics department enters their A level students for the Senior Maths Challenge national competition. This year we have recorded some of our best ever results with 6 Gold (representing the top 6% of entrants from a nationwide entry of 54000), 7 Silver and 13 Bronze awards. Congratulations go to all who gained an award and in particular to the following who gained Gold and Silver medals: Gold: Richard Baldwin, Peter Bell, Daniel Jackson, James Lovell, Guy Maycock and Oliver Rowe Silver: Richard Ball, Ryan McIntyre, Sarah Potter, Michael Rowe, Sanjeev Sharma, Jonathon Thompson and Anthony Withers.

Both Daniel Jackson and Guy Maycock deserve special congratulations in that they performed well enough to be invited to the British Olympiad team selection process.

Achievements and Successes

Health wise it has not been a particularly good half term for the staff. We were hit quite badly by the flu virus just after half term and a number of staff were laid low by it. Mrs J Foster (German) has not fully recovered from her operation and, unfortunately, will not be returning to work until later in the spring term. Mr W I Appleby (Head of English) has had to go in to hospital for surgery and will be away from school until the end of January at the earliest. We wish both Mrs Foster and Mr Appleby a speedy and full recovery. Mr M Spencer will continue to teach Mrs Foster’s classes and Mr T Patchett will teach Mr Appleby’s.

Bablake

ACADEMIC NEWS

Mrs H Billings (German) will start her maternity leave at the beginning of the spring term. We wish her well for the duration of her pregnancy and look forward to seeing her back in Bablake at the start of the autumn term next September. While she is away we are trying to find cover teaching - not easy to do in these days of national teacher shortage, particularly in modern languages. Obviously, whenever a member of staff is away for a long time the school does everything in its power to ensure that examination candidates in particular are not disadvantaged, but we will not put under-qualified teachers in front of our students, preferring to cover from our own staff if we cannot locate adequate supply teaching. We are always happy to hear from parents who are qualified, experienced and in a position to offer some part-time/temporary teaching on those (usually pretty rare) occasions when we may be in need: please just write to the Headmaster in confidence.

HM’s NOTES

Congratulations go to: • Lauren Shorrocks on winning the Warwickshire U14 Girls Singles Badminton tournament and the U15 Girls’ Doubles tournament.

• Kyle Gurney on winning Gold and Silver medals in various Gymnastics competitions at tumbling and floor exercises.

• Both Lower Sixth and 3B tutor groups on their excellent support for the “Seeds for Africa”charity collection.

Luke Jackson-Miller on being selected as part of the Team England Ice Hockey squad that is participating in the World Cup Tournament in Canada in February.

Saba Ghadimzadeh on winning the Zodiac West Midlands Young Writers' competition and Thomas Bend, Luke Stefaniak and Melissa Walton on being runners-up Paul Best on being selected for the Warwickshire U14/15 ‘Development of Excellence’ cricket squad. Paul is still eligible for the U13 squad and is just one of two players from that team to be accelerated in to a higher age group.

I hope you like the “new look” Newsletter. This is the first one we have had professionally published and the intention is that all future editions will be published in the same way. We are also going to reduce the number of Newsletters each year from five to four and there will not be a February half term edition - the next Newsletter to be published will be at the end of the Easter term.

The second half of this term has passed very rapidly and I suspect that memories of the two-week half term break have long since faded away. This was the first time we have had two weeks at half term and from the feedback I have had it seems to have been well received and appreciated. I am, as always, pleased to receive the views of parents on all aspects of what we do at Bablake and if you do have any views on the half term break, please let me know. It has been a very busy, hectic and most successful half term in so many different areas – sport, music, drama, competitions, fund raising – and reports on these are contained in this newsletter. I would like to express my thanks to all who helped in some way to make the PA Christmas Fayre such an enjoyable and successful day. I have often mentioned that Bablake is like an extension to the family and, with parents, grandparents, pupils and staff all working so effectively together, the Christmas Fayre certainly had a family feel about it.

With this newsletter you should receive copies of this year’s Wheatleyan and Copyright magazines. I trust you will all enjoy reading them in the quieter times over Christmas and the New Year. On behalf of the staff and governors I would like to wish you all, parents and pupils, a very happy, festive and enjoyable Christmas and New Year and extend a personal thank you for your continuing support throughout the past twelve months.

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