BVGS Newsletter December 2016

Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School Inspiration and Excellence

Autumn Term 2016

On Thursday 8 December 2016, just under 50 years after the building of the Science Block in 1967, we opened our new £3.1m facility for the study of Maths, Physics, Design and Computing, the Richards-Randon STEM Block. This provides us with seventeen new classrooms, fit for the 21st century, including a robotics suite. It also finally delivers much needed changing rooms for our female students. I am also delighted that the new building has an interesting new feature designed by two of our Year 11 students, Harry Ayto and Ali Lakhanpal, a light fitting in our atrium based on the molecular structure of octane.

Our new Richards-Randon STEM Block, designed by R Johnson and built by E Manton Limited is a remarkable achievement. We are very grateful to our many donors and benefactors, led by our Campaign Board Chair, Peter Dines (OV). Their generosity, and the generosity of our volunteers, and support from the Governors and Vesey Community has been inspirational.

To celebrate our opening, we had a number of distinguished guests: Dr John Craggs DL BSc PhD HonDUniv FCMA, Chair of Governors, our principal benefactor, our former Chair of Governors, Mr Clive Richards OBE, DL (OV), the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Carl Rice and Dr John Rudge (OV), Fellow in Geophysics at Trinity College, Cambridge University.

This is a wonderful achievement and resource for the Vesey Community.

History in the making …. Have a great Christmas!

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Autumn 2016

Academic success at 'A' Level ...

We celebrated excellent ‘A’ level results in August 2016 with over 83% of entries being graded A*-B. Previous school records were smashed, with the highest percentage of A* grades ever at 22%. Also an incredible 50% of students achieved AAB or better in two or more challenging ‘Facilitating’ subjects ie Maths, Sciences, History, English Literature, Geography and Modern Foreign Languages, up from 43% in 2015. Further analysis has also shown that the percentage of students achieving AAB in three+ Facilitating subjects is also up to 35% (27% 2015 and 21% 2014).

As usual there were many fantastic individual performances. Congratulations to Niall Keating whose four A* grades won him a place to study Engineering at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University. In total seven students are off to Oxbridge with top marks, including Tom Breakwell (Theology at Selwyn College, Cambridge), Sneha Lala (English at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge), Tamsin Sandiford (French and Italian at Homerton College, Cambridge), Lewis Terry (Economics and Management at Pembroke College, Oxford), Brendan Sorohan (Maths at Jesus College, Oxford) and Connor Walton (French and German at Lincoln College, Oxford). Well done also to Jamie Mair, who with four A*s, will be reading Physics and Theoretical Physics at Nottingham University. There are also a further four students with three A*s and an A – Dominic Burden (Aerospace Engineering, Bristol University), Chloe Higgins (Veterinary Science, Bristol University), Patrick Singleton (Maths at Warwick University) and Adam Smith (Geology at Imperial College, London). Other students with three A*s include James Riley (Medicine at Birmingham University), Daniel Scott (Computer Science at Bristol) and Amy Staines (Accounting and Finance at Bath).

A Level

… and GCSE At GCSE, we celebrated many superb performances including: Amrit Chirrimar (7*, 3A) , James Cutting (9*, 1A), Dominic Devine (7*, 1A, 2B) , Jack Eccles (6*,4A) , Thomas Edwards (9*, 1A) , Eben Gutteridge (6*, 4A) , William Hennessy (7*, 3A), Daniel Leyva (9*, 1A), Ben Miles (6*,4A), Thomas Parkes (7*, 2A, 1B), Joseph Perrin (6*,4A) , Matthew Price (7*, 2A, 1B), Daniel Quirk (8*, 2A), Philip Reader (9*,1A), Aran Sandhu (8*,2A) , Balamrit Sokhal (6*, 4A) and Luke Topley (6*,2A, 2B).

GCSE

Autumn 2016

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Walk to Africa On 19 September the whole school took part in a Walk to Africa to help raise vital funds for a primary school in Tanzania. We all put our best foot forward as we walked the equivalent 4,600 mile distance from the Royal Town to Tanzania as part of a huge effort to raise money for the Buyuni One Primary School. The Walk to Africa saw all students taking a variety of routes around the school to clock up the total distance. The event was inspired by the school's partnership with the Aspire Sports Trust to help improve Buyuni One's infrastructure and support the development of its pupils' education. We are grateful to Green and Company, Estate Agents in Sutton Coldfield, for their support. In total we raised £7,254.

Buyuni Primary School An update from our partners Aspire Sports Trust ...

In October, work began at Buyuni One Primary School to plumb a new water well, plumb water to the toilet block and provide electricity to all the classrooms. This work has been successfully completed and the children and teachers at the school can now use the upgraded facilities. 'We would like to thank Bishop Vesey's Grammar School for all their help in raising the money for the completed work'

MacMillan At the beginning of October the school held a 'coffee and cake' morning in order to raise funds for Macmillan. Our Year 10 students came up with some fabulous cake creations as part of a competition In total the MacMillan coffee morning raised £433.22

Children in Need 18 November was Children In Need day. There was a non-uniform day for years 7-10 and Sixth Form, which has raised just under £900. Additionally there have been a number of activities from hair dyeing to leg waxing?! The latter was a massive success. Well done to James Cutting and Daniel Leyva who between them raised £150 in sponsorship.

There also have been vibrant sales of cakes and chocolate! I anticipate a good total overall for the school. Thank you to Dr Reilly, Mrs Overton, the Charity Team and all staff (including the onesie-wearing Mr Keeble) who volunteered and helped make the event such a success.

Autumn 2016

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BVGS Drama - 'Find Me' On 8 and 9 December, we held our second senior drama production in partnership with Centrestage School of Speech and Drama, 'Find Me'. This follows on from the success of last year's 'Two', which was highly commended by Birmingham theatre critics.

Verity is one of three children, daughter to Jean and Edward Taylor. She likes to sing, especially David Bowie, and she loves to laugh. Verity also kicks, and bites, and runs away. Verity swears and screams and stops still, like a statue. Verity Taylor is a young girl in the 60s suffering with a mental illness that no one knows how to treat.

Verity is both terrifying and terrified, and little conundrums who don't fit in boxes get lost in the system. Verity is lost, and no one knows how to find her.

The theme embraces issues very close to BVGS, and the work done with Time to Change.

Members of the cast of 'Two' (right) receiving their 'Highly Commended Award' from the Knights of St Columba Drama Awards in Council House, Birmingham.

Following last summer’s successful performances of ‘Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations’ by Alan Ayckbourn and a devised drama based on WW1 entitled ‘The Game’, (see photo left, taken at Lichfield Cathedral) Centrestage are planning to mount a single full length play this summer and hope that your Y7, 8 or 9 son will be keen to be involved.

Drama Sessions will take place on either Monday or Tuesday after school, from 3.25-4.45pm beginning on 9/10 January 2017. Your son can choose either Monday or Tuesday depending on which night suits them better. The KS3 performance is planned for the end of the summer term 2017.

Autumn 2016

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Christmas Concert 2016 This year's Christmas Concert held on Tuesday 13 December was a tremendous success with a capacity audience enjoying festive music to get them into the Christmas spirit.

Year 7 Class Choir (right) who sang 'Jingle Bell Rock' and 'Blue Christmas' Vocal Ensemble (below) consisting of Elliott Mattey, Ross Dryhurst, Zachary Deakin and Joseph McClafferty who sang 'Merry Christmas Everyone'

The school orchestra (above) who played 'Winter Wonderland', 'Have yourself a merry little Christmas' and 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing'

The Funky Bishops (above) playing 'Silver Bells' and 'Good King Wenceslas'

Brass Ensemble (above) who gave a rendition of 'Deck the Halls' and We wish you a Merry Christmas'

Vocal Soloist Sophie Lloyd sang 'Somewhere only we know' by Keane

The Wind Band (above) who played 'Walking in the Air'

Vocal soloists Freddie Goodrham (below) who sang 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'

Autumn 2016

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Lord Mayor's Sixth Form Mega Quiz On 3 November BVGS achieved success in the Sixth Form Mega Quiz (with contestants from all the top state and private schools across the Midlands) held in the University of Birmingham Great Hall.

For Mr Goodwin, Head of Sixth Form this has been something of a Holy Grail to attain over the last decade. This year we smashed it!

We attained a record score of 105 out of 110. What an amazing team of champions. l-r Courtney Szanto, Kate Horton, Daniel Patrick, Isaac Stevens (capt), Ben Clay and Juliette Thomas pictured with the Lord Mayor of Birmingham and our own Mr Goodwin.

Target 2.0

Well done to the Target 2.0 Team (left) of Tommy Powell, Isabella Page, Rob Mills and Sofia Kaur who did a superb presentation at the University of Birmingham. We were pipped to the top spot by Wolverhampton Grammar School for Girls. Thank you to Mrs Brocklebank and Dr Reilly for their coaching of the team.

Maths Challenge On Tuesday 8 November 49 Further Mathematicians from years 12 and 13 took part in the UKMT Senior Mathematics Challenge in Old Big School. The challenge included a wide range of interesting problems that are designed to test students’ mathematical problem solving skills to the maximum, with students who do particularly well qualifying for the British Mathematics Olympiad or Senior Mathematics Kangaroo papers. BVGS had some excellent results this year, with 16 students achieving a bronze award, 15 students achieving a silver award and 9 students achieving a gold award. Of those students achieving gold, 6 qualified for the Senior Maths Kangaroo paper; a great achievement.

Those students are: Benjamin Hackett, Mustafa Qureshi, Molly Willars, Hamza Siddiqui, Nat Scott and Tom Edwards. Special congratulations should also be given to Benjamin Hackett for achieving the best mark in the school, and Nat Scott for achieving the best score in year 12. Thank you to Mr Beasley, Second in Mathematics, for organising this excellent opportunity.

Shadowing Andrew Mitchell MP Andrew Mitchell MP spends each Friday in our constituency. I had the privilege of shadowing him on Friday 8 July 2016 – it gave me an insight into the many responsibilities he has and the issues in which he is asked to get involved. The day began with myself and his team helping to set up a careers fair in the Sutton Coldfield Town Hall. This fair was very interesting, highlighting a broad range of career opportunities, from charity work to the Armed Forces to college schemes aimed at young people. Andrew gave the opening speech? I found it fascinating talking to the various organisations present and would highly recommend this fair to any young person, especially if you are not certain on their post -16 or -18 education. Throughout the day I spoke a number of Andrew’s colleagues about a diverse set of subjects, ranging from local matters to the wider political landscape, the post Brexit position and (then) Conservative leader elections. I attended multiple constituency meetings in which Andrew listened to concerns and issues from any constituents.

These are of course confidential, but the matters ranged from special interest groups to the preservation of the Green Belt at Peddimore. After more political discussions and helping out at the fair, I joined Andrew at the Job Centre near the Town Hall and attended another meeting between him and the branch manager, discussing the promising low unemployment figures. I hope this gives you a flavour of the tasks that Samuel Breen U6 our local MP undertakes on our behalf.

MEP Visit

Anthea McIntyre MEP came into school on 30 September to talk to our students at PolSoc, enjoying a great Q&A session.

Autumn 2016

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Attain Travel is a proud sponsor of Bishop Veseyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Grammar School Sports We were absolutely delighted to hear that Lucy Parize, from our Sixth Form regional champions team, has been signed by WASPS Netball, who play in the Netball Super League which is televised on Sky. Lucy took up Netball at the age of eight and later entered the England Pathway System starting in the Regional Academy and progressing to the National Academy. Obviously we are brimming with pride in Lucy's achievements. To read more about this story visit the Wasps Website here.

England Hockey

Cross Country Success

A number of our boys have been selected to be part of the England Hockey Performance Centre Squad for Birmingham. At U15 level, 5 out of the 24 boys : Ben Ellis, Archie Harris, Aiden Hill, George Hounslow and Dan Porter have all been selected at U15 level. At U17 level, a further 4 boys have been selected to be part of the 2017 squad: James Davey, Luke O'Brien, Archie Sansome and Tom Thursfield. This is a fantastic achievement and is testament to the outstanding Hockey coaching that our boys receive from Mr Devey, Mr Howell and the rest of the team. We are very grateful to all of them for their hard work and support for all the boys.

Inaugural Powell's Pool Head Many congratulations and huge thanks to Mr Bousfield and Miss Egan for organising the first Powell's Pool Head. It was all very slick, which often isn't the case when visiting regattas and heads around the country. A big thank you to Mrs Berry, Mrs Hadley and Mrs Shephard for organising the catering arrangements. All parents, students and staff were well catered for from the make-shift 'field kitchen' put up underneath the Bishop Vesey's Gazebo. A wonderful morning of rowing.

Somme Trip - October 2016 In this 100th anniversary year of the Battle of the S o m m e , Mrs Storey, Head of History and her team took a group of Year 9 and 10 students to see the Somme battlefields first hand.

Sam Godsell (9W) (left) was fortunate enough to be able to visit his great, great grandfathers grave at Thiepval almost100 years to the day, since his death.

This is proving to be an excellent season for the crosscountry team as we go into the Christmas break we are joint first in the league. This is due to a number of excellent performances, including Thomas Parkes who has had a number of first place finishes. Well done to all the team and to Mrs Brocklebank and Mr Potter for their support.

Junior Rugby Tour Our junior rugby tour to Scotland and Northumbria was a big success. A big thank you to Mr Whiting and his team of staff.

The boys played some good rugby with the right spirit and were a pleasure to be with. An excellent first tour for many.

Nyanda Foday, Young Poet Laureate Congratulations to Nyanda Foday who, on 6 October, at the launch of the Birmingham Literature Festival was announced as Birmingham's 11th Young Poet Laureate. Nyanda, who is in U6 said, "Poetry has always been a big part of my life'. I have tried a variety of styles and wanted to show others of my age and younger that there is so much more to poetry than they know." Nyanda recently put this into practice by performing at the interval of our production of 'Find Me'

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Autumn 2016

Art Trips We ran an excellent KS5 Art trip to London (see left) taking in the Welcome Gallery and Tate Modern. Thank you to Mrs Heer, Head of Art and all the team for a wonderful trip

Year 9 have also visited Birmingham Art Gallery where they were able to reflect of the work of Picasso, Lowry, Epstein and many more, as well as explore the treasures of the Staffordshire Hoard.

Speech Night 2016 November ended with our annual Speech Day. It was brilliant to welcome back the record-breaking Class of 2016. It was so nice to hear that they had settled well at university and were enjoying the next chapter of their lives. Our guest speaker was the inspirational Bilal Ahmad (OV 2008-10) MEng and former Eddowes Prize winner who now works for BP in Norway (pictured right). As well as celebrating our record-breaking A-Level year, we honoured two notable Veseyans who retired from service this year: our Clerk Kerry Osbourne and our Groundsman Bob Brown. A big thank you to all responsible for a successful evening including Jemima Richardson-Jones, (left) who sang Fauré's ‘Après un rêve’ beautifully and Reiss Chahal (School Captain) who gave the vote of thanks. Above all it was a very well organised evening with a very pleasant atmosphere.

John Craggs, DL BSc PhD HonDUniv FCMA, Chair of Governors, (right) speaking at our

Annual Speech Day on 25 November 2016

The Clive Richards VC Award At our Speech Day we awarded a prestigious honour to Bob Brown who has recently retired after 43 years as Head Groundsman. Well known in the local community, Bob has supported the school and a number of local sports clubs with the preparation of sports pitches to a high and exacting standard for many years. Bob's unwavering hard work and dedication was honoured when he was awarded the prestigious Clive Richards VC Award. This accolade, which is not awarded on an annual basis and has only had one previous recipient, is given to a member of the Vesey Community who embodies the virtues of audacity, determination and spirit in their service of Bishop Vesey's Grammar School. The trophy itself has great historical significance, having been awarded by the Staffordshire Territorial Force to a former student of the school, Flt Lt Alan Jerrard, who was the only aerial Victoria Cross recipient of the long and bitter campaign fought on the Italian front during WW1.

Muslim Prayer Room We look forward to welcoming our Muslim students, who wish to pray, to the Atrium of the new STEM Block next term. Don't forget to bring your mats! http://www.bvgs.co.uk/alumni/alumni-community

Goodbye to Dr John We say goodbye today to our outstanding Head of Chemistry, Dr Michelle John. We thank her for all she has done at BVGS and wish her and her family well in their new home in Rugby and in Dr John's new job at Warwick School.