BVGS Headmasters Newsletter Winter 2011

BISHOP VESEY’S GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Headteacher’s Newsletter End of Term Autumn 2011 Message from the Head 2011: what an outstanding year! It will be recorded as a year in which we maintained our extremely high academic profile, now comfortably established in the TOP 100 schools in the country with further record-breaking results at GCSE. Yet another judgement of ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted last June.

Beyond the classroom we applaud the outstanding range of opportunities which have been provided in 2011- so many wonderful results, personal developments and achievements. Amidst all that, an exemplary school ethos through which we have offered outstanding care and support for those less fortunate than ourselves with recordbreaking levels of generosity through charitable works. A memorable and outstanding year closes as 2012 beckons with so much for us to look forward to with great relish.

With sincere thanks to all who have helped make it happen in 2011 - a truly outstanding year!

2012 an Olympic year…...time for more records!

David Iddon Headteacher

Staff News

Founder’s Day 2011

We welcomed this half-term Sue Lyons who joins us as Teacher of ICT and wish her a rewarding association with the school. Congratulations to Sally Arrandale who moves to Assistant Learning Mentor from Learning Support Assistant.

Proud moment in Old Big School for Governor and Old Veseyan Julian Whiting with his son, School Captain, Jack at the buffet lunch before the service. (Right) Governor Graham Homer and wife Sue chatting with Jack.

Season’s Greetings to all members of the Vesey Community ‘Vesey Players’ return to BVGS

Welcome back to ‘Vesey Players’ who linked with the school to produce ‘A Navraj Degun U6 retains Christmas Carol: the musical’ in Big School his U18 England place in this December with members of BVGS, parents and friends of the school helping hockey for a second season. on and off stage! A pleasure to watch, a tremendous community link and a great show. So much infectious enjoyment on stage from a cast which turned Ebenezer from miserly scrooge to joyous merrymaker. Members of the audience caught the buzz, responded well and were uplifted by the ‘Spirit of Christmas’. A triumph for all concerned. Well done indeed!

Year 7 set off by train to the University of B’ham for the Christmas Science Lecture.

Halloween in the canteen!

Always eager to join in the Vesey fun, our catering staff, dressed for the occasion and provided appropriately ‘scary’ dishes for the end of October. Even ‘Monster Munches’ were permitted for this special treat…...but no tricks!

V Factor 2011 On 18 Nov students performed in front of a packed Big School audience, including the panel of ‘experts’, providing entertainment and raising lots of money for charity in what has become an annual event. Congratulations to all involved in the organisation and production of this great event!

Pictured below is 2011 winner Nick Tuck, who has performed in V Factor over the past 4 years and has finally clinched the title.

Panel members Dave Goodwin, Kate Steadman, Naima Field and George Acton

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Library

Christmas Hampers

Kick Boxing World Champion Raven Sarjit of 7 Powells has had a most eventful year in the world of kickboxing. In August 2011 he competed for Britain in the World Kickboxing Championship, winning in the freestyle and continuous fighting categories against Wales, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, USA and Canada. He now holds the title as World Champion in the intermediate 10-11 year old category. This term, Raven competed in the East Anglia championship and took first prize for the 10-11 year old category. He is currently on his purple stripe belt (two away from a black belt) and trains every week with his club, RDBBA. His coach, Rick Dubidat, is himself a world champion. Congratulations to Raven on his amazing achievements. We look forward to seeing him gain yet more medals for Britain!

Years 7-10 excelled themselves again this year in the Christmas Hamper competition. As you can see from the photos the boys showed great imagination and community spirit in designing and filling them with Christmas goodies for the Children’s Hospital.

Well done to all forms who supported this very worthwhile cause.

Inside out at the Charity ‘Sleep Out’ for St Basil’s!

Award-winning author Justin Somper spoke to Yr 7 students about his popular Vampirates series.

He explained how he undertook extensive research on pirate history and vampire myths before starting the series. For budding authors Justin gave tips on creating effective characters, setting and storyline.

Kubrian Rajakumaran was presented with a signed copy of a Vampirates book for his winning entry in the Vampirates Competition. Congratulations to Jack O’Hara, Joel Harvey, Ben Stenhouse and Callum Simpson who were also presented with books for their work.

The ‘Big Sleep Out’ finally happened inside after protracted planning and detailed risk assessments! Mark Smyth U6 is to be congratulating in taking over the ‘open air’ idea from last year and bringing the event to fruition. Mark led a series of assemblies about this Expert First Aid for Rugby sponsored night in school, highlighting the tremendous work that St Basil’s undertake in B’ham to help the homeless. 28 students and 7 Congratulations to Pam Maskell staff slept ‘rough’ on Sat 10 Dec, raising c£2K for this worthy cause. who, on 27 Nov, successfully completed the RFU Emergency First Aid Music for Sport course.

The NSPCC held their fundraising concert here at BVGS on the 25 November. Performing alongside the choirs from local primary schools were soloists Nathaniel Coxon, Sebastian Heley, James Nesbitt and Jack Whiting. The Music Department held their Christmas Concert on 1 December - a very successful evening showcasing the talents of 8 soloists and numerous ensembles. It was wonderful to see so many of our Year 7 students performing for the first time here at BVGS. 9G organised a Halloween Charity event on 1 Nov coming to school dressed in Halloween themed fancy dress.

7W in House Young Apprentice

Charity Totals Cancer Research UK

£200.04

St Basils

£276.74

County Air Ambulance

£432.57

St John’s Ambulance

£432.57

Medicins Sans Frontieres Lepra

£67.64 £839.45

On 6 November Pam Maskell and a group of 6th form students helped to marshal the annual Cinder Path Run on behalf of The Norman Laud Association in Sutton Park. The Sixth Form links with The Norman Laud Association are now well established and we see this as a positive way of supporting our local community.

Presenting their Business Plan for Solar Panels to Graham Swindells, BVGS School Business ManDebra £744.62 ager, are Joshua Hall, Daley Smith, Anthony Diocese of B’ham Malawi Project £375 Orme and Jordan Orchard, who were looking for a financial commitment from the school for Children In Need (V Factor) £1,340.30 their interesting project. Faced with this Dragons’ Entrance Tests 2011 Movember £278.28 Den scenario, our School Business Manager called for further research findings before investing! PerGrand Total so far: £4,987.21 1133 candidates across B’ham and beyond suasive arguments, great confidence and lots of On Sat 11 Nov, 500 of the 1133 Yr 6 students came to sit their entrance exam at BVGS. This business acumen displayed by our young entrepremammoth task for Pam Maskell, BVGS Test Centre Manager, not only involved a large num- neurs who came looking for help with their idea. ber of staff but 45 Sixth Form students who looked after the boys during their time here. A change in the National Admissions Code means that selective test results must be known to ADVANCE NOTICE! parents before ‘Preference Forms’ are submitted to the Local Authority by 31st Oct. (a naEntrance Tests 2012: Saturday 8 September tional date), thus bringing forward the test date for all selective schools across the country.

December 2011 London Art Visit 24 November

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Ultimate Frisbee: New sport launched in Senior Games

AS and A2 Art students travelled to London on their annual visit to some of the major city galleries. The students saw a large range of works from the 13th century through to the latest award winning photography in the National Portrait Gallery. The major exhibition of paintings by Leonardo is completely sold out until the end of January when it closes. A big ‘thank you’ to Andrea Gregory who, at very short notice, stepped in to accompany Anne Fitton on the visit.

Oxbridge Interview Practice We are indebted to all those members of the Vesey Community who helped on 22 Nov at our annual jamboree, when we offered interview practice in Big School for 46 students who have applied for Oxbridge and/or Medi- Fast and furious, this is a rapidly growing sport nationally, now enjoyed by BVGS students. cal and Dental Schools. 25 from 32 of our students have been called to interview at Oxbridge. A great start.

Chess is on the move once again!

Thanks to Alex Morgan, Teacher i/c Chess who provides students with opportunities for early evening interschool matches on Fridays in Room 26.

Time To Act: Year 8 Drama Workshop Chess enthusiasts pictured here on 2 Dec in a 4-2 win over Wolverhampton GS. We are delighted to announce that parent Wayne Horkan will once again be sponsoring BVGS Chess and has extended his generosity to support other activities which would benefit from such assistance. Sincere thanks for this invaluable help. If you are interested in sponsoring any kind of BVGS activities please contact the Headteacher via his PA Sharon Weblin on 0121-250-5403.

Cross Country Old Veseyan and professional actor, James Merry returned to BVGS on 2 Dec to offer a one day drama workshop for 24 members of Yr8 who learned new techniques and revelled in ‘improvisation’ shown above (right).

James encouraged our students who showed commitment and enthusiasm throughout to day to take every opportunity to tread the Vesey boards and to consider acting as a career or recreational pursuit in the future.

The team was 2nd in the Queen Mary's relay to Nottingham HS. Sam Lacey was the 3rd fastest individual runner, who won his first senior league race and on all but one occasion, has been the fastest Vesey runner. Sam has gained in confidence and is very keen to win more league races with his fast sprint finishes. Megan O'Brien beat him at Old Swinford School and for all the other races she has been the second fastest Vesey runner. She was the fastest female runner at QMGS and she is setting running standards for the rest of the team with her professional approach to training and to each race.

Target Two Point Zero Interest Rate Challenge - BVGS Regional Winners! (l-r) Scott Bonetti, James Arnold, Emma Beresford & Oliver

A memorable first ever win in this competition for Vesey’s!

Jupp (Capt) won the regional heat of this challenge, beating runners-up King Edward’s Five Ways, Bablake, King Henry VIII, Aldridge school and Bishop Walsh Catholic school. Judges admired their presentation for its first-rate breadth of sources and references, clear descriptions and excellent understanding of why inflation is at its current level and why it is forecast to fall in the coming months. They made good links throughout the presentation to the effect of a range of factors on the level of inflation. The BVGS team is now through to the Area Final in February. Last year there were 289 teams in the competition with 43 regional heat winners going on to 6 area finals. Head of Business Studies and Economics, Kathryn Wright said, ‘I was really very proud of the students and their responses in the challenging Q&A session after their presentation.

They gave evidence of very good understanding of the factors influencing inflation and the effects of monetary policy’. We also thank retired Head of Business Studies & Economics Mel Harvey who returned to help with the preparation for this challenge and joined the audience.

Headteacher’s Newsletter

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Big Win at Greater Birmingham Tournament

Junior World Champion

Vesey's U14 squad were victorious for a third consecutive year at the Greater Birmingham Tournament. In a tough group alongside KES Aston and KES Camp Hill, Vesey rallied after going 10-0 down to beat KES Aston 22-10, with two tries, two conversions and one penalty from Joe Hartigan to add to Adam Spinner's opening effort.

The second game against KES Camp Hill saw Vesey win 19-0, with Joe scoring a try and two conversions. John Clarke and Michael Saunders also crossed the whitewash. These two victories meant Vesey qualified for the final against the victors from the other group, KES Birmingham. Vesey started well, and although KES dominated possession for the majority of the game, Vesey Captain John Clarke (holding the trophy) withstood everything that KES threw at them in the final and vice-captain Adam Spinner minutes, to finish the game 12-5 winners.

Rugby Results so far this season 1st XV 2nd XV U16 U15A U15B U14A U14B U13A U13B U12A U12B U12C

P 14 9 9 12 5 13 5 10 8 9 5 4

W 10 6 2 5 2 8 5 7 4 5 4

D 1 2 2 -

L 4 2 5 5 3 5 5 5 1 5 0 0

Further Rugby News A great season thus far for the 1st XV, having won 10 matches with considerable success against top Midlands teams. We show great strength in depth with an excellent 2nd XV and junior teams performing most reliably. Regrettably not all the schools on our fixture card can offer B Team fixtures as in previous years. We are indebted at BVGS to all those involved in coaching and managing teams who provide a wonderful opportunity for over 200 young rugby players to compete on Saturdays throughout the season. 103 matches completed this term with 58 wins.

Congratulations to Dan Venables who had a fantastic summer of competitive sailing culminating in a 4th in the Topper World Championships held near Dublin which made him Junior Topper World Champion. He has re-qualified for the Topper National squad for 2011-12, his final year and has been nominated to receive a Sportsaid Grant. Dan is also a member of the National iexcel program, with Brian Davies his sporting mentor at BVGS. As an iexcel athlete, he was invited to London on 23 November 2011 for a National Performance day. Well done indeed!

Sat 5 Nov - Firework Party? BVGS U15s were certainly on fire v Lawrence Sheriff School winning 41-21

Hockey A 5-0 win for the first team against Queen Mary’s, which included a Harry White hat-trick looked like sparking the season into light. A young side, missing some key players, performed superbly against King Henry VIII away and did not deserve to lose. A fantastic performance from Will Sheffield 10W shows that there is promise for the future. The big test before Christmas will be in the County Cup quarter final at home to Warwick.

The seconds have continued their good early season form with wins over King Henry’s and Newcastle Under Lyme. A record of Played 10, won 5, drawn 3 and only 2 defeats has been achieved by this very young side. Sam Mcdonald 11R has been in particularly good form. The U15s have a large number of fixtures in the New Year and can hopefully re-discover their winning form. The U14s have started well with wins over Warwick and Adams and narrowly lost 1-0 to a very strong Bablake team. U13 ‘a’ and ‘b’ also have a large number of fixtures to look forward to and have been very successful so far. A draw against a strong Birmingham side demonstrated the potential in the team.

Birmingham Schools’ Table-Tennis On 22 Nov BVGS competed in the Birmingham Schools’ County Table Tennis Competition. Teams were entered in each category and the standard of play was exceptionally high. Although we did not manage to qualify for the Midlands stage of the competition, there were some excellent wins in individual games. Well done to all who took part.

We look to go one stage further next year! U19: Matthew Heller, Alex Comfort, Alex Mcleavey, Jack Robinson U16: Tom Reershemius, Mohammed Mirza, Tevraj Aujla, Rory Deegan, U13: Yihan Ding, Jagpal Sumbal, Spencer Gray-Nimmo, Zach Smith.

Netball From a training squad of 35 girls we have played 5 fixtures with some successes. The U6 netballers are leading the development of the squad. Congratulations to Jess Cottrell U6 (third from left) who has been selected for the West Midlands Warriors U19 National Talent Squad.

Sharp shooters - Vesey Netball players in action at Wyndley.

Published for BVGS by Sharon Weblin, Headteacher’s PA sw@bishopveseys.bham.sch.uk. Printed by Jayne Joyce , BVGS Reprographics.