Headteacher’s Newsletter
BISHOP VESEY’S GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Half Term Spring 2011 Message from the Head Every picture tells a story! More p ic t ures , les s s to r y? No t so…..there are still lots of stories behind this pictorial résumé of what we have been up to over the past seven weeks! Individual stories of major success, achievement and altruism as well as similar stories at whole-school level. Do enjoy this round-up of Vesey activities of a half-term that will be remembered for ‘working hard and playing hard’!
Staff News In January we welcomed Maryann Dye, our new Director of Music and wish her a long and happy association with BVGS and the musical life of the school. Similarly we welcomed Alex Davis, Teacher of PE/Games, who joins the team of expert teachers and coaches in another high profile department. We say thanks and farewell to Fiona Conway, teacher of Modern Foreign Languages who leaves BVGS to begin maternity leave.
Academic Profile
Students enjoy friendship, the beginnings of warmer days and benefit, thanks to Vesey benefactors, from the magnificent facility on Middle Field, available each day for recreational football.
Dan Evans L6 delivered a 9 min Alan Bennett style monologue in the final assembly of term last Christmas, entitled ‘A Shepherd’s Tale’, re-telling the story of angels appearing to shepherds, watching their flocks by night. The passage encouraged us to reflect on the inter-dependence between shepherd and sheep and consider, through revelation and then faith, the possibility of our dependence on the ‘Shepherd King’. A well delivered, dramatised message for Christmas and the New Year.
and ‘Forty Years on’ …….
David Iddon Headteacher Happy hour at lunchtime!
‘Talking Heads’
Good news of Oxbridge places revealed to three wise men of Vesey’s: Congratulations (left to right) to Phil Griggs Mech. Engineering at Pembroke, Cambridge Patrick Ball Earth Science at St Hugh’s, Oxford Conor Healy History at Pembroke, Cambridge
Talk of the town…... …..across the city and beyond! Such is our academic profile locally, across B’ham and beyond, that in 2011 there are no fewer than 468 applicants from across the region (375 in 2010), seeking to join our Sixth Form.
BVGS Deputy Head, Ian Maddy, who retired in 2009, was Guest of Honour at the 40th running of the King Henry VIII’s National Cross-Country Relay Race on 2 Feb in Coventry. Ian was there at the inception in 1971 when this prestigious race began. BVGS was awarded a special trophy for being the only school to have competed in all 40 years! Pictured below is the BVGS running squad, managed by Deputy Head Bill Potter. They were also awarded a trophy for the most improved school placing from 2010 to 2011.
6th Form Admissions Officer, Julie Evetts (above), displays a small sample of the sackfuls of applications from would-be New Veseyans.
Lower Sixth Chemists in action Tom Andrew L6, deep in concentration during a recent practical, investigating the effect of temperature on the kinetics of thiosulphate/hydrochloric acid reaction. Science is an increasingly popular choice, along with Maths, for entrance to our L6.
Ronan Davis in the Sutton Park Race 2011
Sincere thanks to Sportology of Mere Green for so kindly sponsoring two voucher prizes for Sportsman/woman of each term. Congratulations to last term’s winners: Ryan Brunsden U6 1st XV winger with 17 tries and a hat-trick against Princethorpe Coll. and Dan Powell 8W recently crowned National U14 Judo Champion and now selected for the Great Britain squad. Dan also plays full-back for the U13A rugby team.