JUNIOR SOLOISTS COMPETITION & ROCK CONCERT

Congratulations to Tim who won this year's Junior Soloists Competition Final on 25th October by playing 'Shout' by Rob Wiffin on the trombone. We also say a big congratulations to all students who entered the competition and performed excellently: Colby, Ismaeal, Seth, Daniel, Joshua, Fraser, Isaac, Jayden, Arjuna, Freddie and Joel.

Well done to all the students who performed in the Rock Concert in Big School on Wednesday 23rd November. An excellent evening!

The acts were:

Untapped Potential: Harry (Guitar), Joel (Singer), and Fraser (Drummer)

Plastic Fiction: Sunny (Drums), Charlie (Guitar/Vocals), Benedict (Guitar/Vocals)

Polaroid: Ethan Miller (Electric Guitar), Neevan (Electric Guitar), Dan (Keyboard) Thomas(Bass

Guitar), Amar (Drums), Charlie (Vocals), Max (Vocals)

Taz (Vocals) & Josh (Piano)

Parents, families and guests of Vesey ventured out in the foggy weather and enjoyed the perfect introduction to the festive season, on 1st December at the Carol Service set in stunning Holy Trinity Parish Church.

Students played and sang 'Hark! the Herald Angels Sing', 'Away in a Manger', 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)', 'Silent Night', 'O Come All Ye Faithful', and ended with 'Let It Snow'. Other highlights included Charlotte playing the Organ on arrival and exit, and the Brass Band playing the terrific soft rock beat 'Setting the Trap' from Home Alone. The Senior Choir also sang 'Carol of the Bells' acapella not just once, but twice - sensational. It was a truly magical service!

Thank you to all the students for their hard work and to Mr Buxton, Mr Hazell and Mr Lenthall for their organisation and composing. Thank you audience members for the generous collection for Hope Food. We were able to hand over a lot of food and a cheque of £239.05 for this worthy local food bank.

W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 | E D I T I O N 1 6 C a r o l S e r v i c e

The annual festive fixture of the school calendar had four versions this year, instead of the regular two, all staged in Big School to near-sellout crouds. Both displaying the all-encompassing and wide musical opportunity provided by the school, and showing off our breadth of musical talent and enthusiasm, a diverse buffet of songs was served up in our 2 Year 7 Concerts, Junior Concert and Senior Concert.

The Year 7 Concerts allowed our new Veseyans to both impress their parents with their newfound instrumental and singing skills and marvel at the premier big band Funky Bishops. They sang an array of songs from an uplifting ‘Sunflowers Growing’ , a cheeky ostinato ‘Cookies’ testing their breath control, our yearly iconic Kenyan tune ‘Jambo Bwana’ to a tour of an Australian zoo in ‘Wobbly Wallaby’ . They then played the classics of Eye of the Tiger, We Will Rock You and finished with Jingle Bells on a broad range of instruments: violins, clarinets, trumpets, cornets, flutes and cellos!

Here are some of their thoughts on their fantastic performance:

I played the cornet in the Year 7 Christmas Concert on Monday. My favourite part was when Mr Buxton made the parents sing ‘In The Australian Zoo’: it was funny when they didn’t know the lines to sing along! -Hermon, 7B

I played the cornet in the Monday Concert. My favourite song was the Australian Zoo and I loved how the songs weren't just Christmas songs but also other fun ones. -Ruben, 7B

I really enjoyed playing Jingle Bells, singing the Cookies song and simply just watching the Funky Bishops carrying out their masterpieces! This concert has now inspired me to go deeper into music and try a whole new variety of instruments (and hopefully get into the Funky Bishops)! -Guhan, 7B

Turning to the later concerts, they both kicked off with the fantastic Funky Bishops running through their set of three. They opened the show with a chilled out Latin number ‘Oyo Como Va’ , featuring a round robin of improvised solos (in a different, unplanned order each time!), followed by ‘In Summer’ from Frozen with a solo for lead alto sax Charlie L6 II and a fast-paced Jingle Bells containing a solo from Alex L6VIII on tenor sax.

The family of percussion instruments were on full show on Monday: the Keyboard Ensemble played the ever-entertaining ‘Mission Impossible’ before a Christmas favourite ‘Feliz Navidad’ . Junior Percussion were up next with ‘Asante’ and then it was the Dhol Group of names needed who struck some classy Bollywood tunes. A change of mood from the young Flute Ensemble, who (also) played Jingle Bells and Coventry Carol, set the scene for the mysterious ‘Hedwig’s Theme’ by the Year 12 Clarinet Ensemble, who also performed ‘Yesterday’ .

The Junior Orchestra, very strong in numbers, blasted out the loud and bold ‘Scorpion’ , broke Disney rules by talking about Bruno through the ‘Encanto’ hit before dating the concert with a rendition of Jazzy Holidays and then an encore of ‘White Christmas’ . Tuesday night began in the same jazzy style of Funky Bishops and then progressed onto Guitar Ensemble who offered a varied trio of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ , ‘Sunny Afternoon’ and ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ . Senior Percussion Ensemble were next with the joyous ‘Under the Sea’ and got us singing along to ‘Fairytale of New York’ (with real bells!). More Christmas music was on the cards, with the Sax Quartet, another Year 12 ensemble, adding their own twists to ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town’ .

Switching from Junior to Senior Orchestra, we began with selections from the evergreen Les Misérables, moved to rock with a masterful arrangement of Coldplay Classics before rounding off the night with Jazzy Holidays and White Christmas.

Putting on four concerts is no easy feat and certainly wouldn’t have been possible without immense teamwork throughout the term and especially on Monday and Tuesday. A massive thanks to all parents, carers, friends and family for attending, supporting and cheering us on both nights, the SFE Music teachers for their expert guidance and help, the Tech team of Charlie 11W, Tom 11G and Saiyoush 8W for allowing us to sound magical, the Sixth Form helper team for managing logistics, all the student musicians who contributed in staging 4 outstanding spectacles and Mr Buxton & Miss Ko for their incredible work providing opportunities to so many students, planning, organising and delivering yet another year of successful concerts.

-Adi L6VI

1ST PLACE: ITALIAN CARD BY TANAY IN 8R

At the end of the Christmas term this year, the Languages department once again held its annual Christmas Card Competition. The standard of cards was extraordinary this year, making the adjudication process very difficult. Special mentions go to Ellis (7G), Alfie (7B) and Thomas (8G) for their entries in French, Spanish and Portuguese respectively, but onto the winners!

In third place is Ayaan (8E), with a card in Polish. The artwork is simply beautiful, and the fact that he worked on the language in the card with Fabian in his form was a nice touch. In second place is Muhammed (7G), with a card in Arabic. The message inside is lovely, detailing traditions in Pakistan, but what really impressed the judges is the way he created the artwork – each design is made out of intricately folded paper! What amazing attention to detail.

And finally in first place is Tanay (8R), with his card in Italian. The combination of both the lovely artwork with the amazing information inside about Italian Christmas traditions, all in Italian, won over the judges in what was a very close competition! He is the winner of an Amazon gift card - congratulations!

-Mr Hazell

2ND PLACE: ARABIC CARD BY MUHAMMED IN 7G

The Giving Tree – Spirit of Christmas, started as one Intern’s idea a few years ago. In the years following it has grown and developed to be something well-known and loved by the community.

The basic idea is that a Christmas tree in Gracechurch Centre, Sutton Coldfield is manned all day by one of the Vesey students. Students distribute flyers detailing a full list of items required by the chosen Charities. Shoppers then can purchase whatever they want, and come back with that item. The response has been staggering - thank you to everyone who has given so generously.

Our students will wrap up all gifts in festive paper and distribute them to the three charities on Monday 19 December. Well done to all those Veseyan who have been involved - what a great example of care for others and leadership!

Upon seeing the School Christmas tree Louie, in 7G, decided to make some Vesey baubles. It was a pleasure to hear about how this had been a weekend project with his Dad, laser cutting the designs and delicately painting each one in the school House colours. They are excellent! Below you will see Louie proudly holding the Gold Vesey bauble.

Louise then explained that he and his Dad are making a festive wooden bench, on which Santa will sit on, in a festive party they are taking part in to raise money for John Taylor Hospices. This charity is close to his family's heart. Each year they aim to raise around £1,500 through different initiatives like carnivals, raffles, and carwashes. Well done Louie - another great example of taking initiative in order to help others!

Well done to 10G's Jacob for gathering his form group to bring in food and funds for Hope Food. Mrs Patel is a very proud form tutor!

Edward's Trust is a charity based in Edgbaston that works with children, young people and families who are facing bereavement and loss. They offer counselling, support groups, play therapy, wellbeing therapy and social events.

When Clive Poole, OV and long standing supporter of the charity, approached our School to help him in his fundraising efforts, the Vesey Charity Team leapt into action by organising a sponsored Row-a-thon, a Speed Punching Competition, a Bake Sale, and a non-uniform day.

The total raised for Edward's Trust by BVGS was a superb figure of £1,274.42, contributing to the whole amount of £27,000!

Throughout the week last week of September, Lucy Goodway from Edward's Trust and Clive, addressed each year group during assemblies getting them to think about how they can support someone who has been bereaved. Lucy shared her own story too, which students found moving and inspirational.

We raised £1,264.38 for the Disasters Emergency Committee Pakistan Floods Appeal through a non-uniform day on Friday 4th November. This charity is providing emergency shelter and food/hygiene supplies for those whose homes have been devastated by flooding! Our thoughts are with this nation.

Upper Sixth lead some great events for Children In Need - 'Who can hang the longest?', Speed Drawing Competition, Raffle with a Twist, and of course, an always enjoyed Bake Sale. With the donations of staff and students, we raised a total of £204.26.

Well done to Charlie and Amos in 10P who have recently secured £70,000 of police funding to install a knife bin in Sutton Coldfield. This funding will also ensure the knife bin is properly maintained and any weapons duly disposed of. Their project has also received a £1,000 marketing budget to promote this ‘knife bin’ to the wider community. Keep an eye out for more updates.

In April, I gave an assembly to all year groups about our democracy. I talked about the Queen’s role as Head of our Nation, and the way she acts as a focus for national identity, unity and pride, officially recognising success and excellence and supporting the ideal of voluntary service. I confess that I did not expect that this would be the year the Queen died. I thought, like many others, that she would comfortably pass 100 not out. Her passing was a shock. The end of an era.

I know many people felt the same. Only 5% of our current population has have ever known another monarch. For us the Queen has been a changeless human reference point in British life. The Queen is also an historic figure. 70 years ago, she took on a huge role: To be the person so globally trusted that her image should be on every unit of currency, every postage stamp, the person in whose name all justice is dispensed in this country, in whose name every law is passed, to whom every minister of the Crown swears allegiance and for whom every member of our Armed Services is pledged if necessary to lay down their lives.

She was the last living person in British public life to have served in uniform in the Second World War. Her first Prime Minister, Churchill, was born in 1874 and her last one, her 15th, was born in 1975. Over that extraordinary span of public service, she helped make the monarchy relevant.