Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School Inspiration and Excellence
Summer 2015
Growing Vesey, Growing Minds
As we come to an end of another action-packed academic year, I’d like to record my thanks publicly to all our hard-working teachers and students and our supportive families. Without the teamwork that is the hallmark of the Vesey community, we would not have had the outstanding year we have had. Not only, have we been judged outstanding in all categories by OFSTED, but also we have striven to provide an education which inspires all our students. At the same time, we have undertaken our ‘Growing Vesey, Growing Minds’ campaign, which seems well on the way to realising £1.1 million in fund-raising and have secured a breath-taking £2 million grant from central government. The photos above give a flavour of our celebration on Friday 3 July to officially close the ‘Growing Vesey, Growing Minds’ campaign- the sun shone and the paella tasted great. Below you can see the arrival of our temporary accommodation housing Computing, DT and Geography next year. Thank you to all our hard-working Campaign Board, chaired by Peter Dines OV, our volunteers and all our donors for helping us meet our fund-raising target thus enabling us to get on with, as Luke O’Brien Y8 cleverly put it, ‘Growing Vesey, Growing Minds’. Wishing you all a great summer.
Headteacher
One of the most amazing benefits of our fund-raising Campaign this year has been the way our School has re-connected with our alumni, the Old Veseyan community. On the 28 April, we welcomed Paul Rimmer OV (below left), a leading civil servant with a key role in national security. Upper Sixth historians were briefed prior to the seminar with some reading from Peter Hennessy’s ‘Distilling the Frenzy’, which gives detail on the role of Paul Rimmer and Sir Peter Ricketts OV. Discussions with students touched on the formulation of security policy from Northern Ireland to the Middle East, from Blair to Cameron, but also encouraged students to consider an exciting career in the civil service fast stream. In June, our Lower Sixth economists had the pleasure of meeting the recently retired Finance Director of the London School of Economics, Andrew Farrell OV (below right) , who while at BVGS was inspired to read Economics at Cambridge by a young Mel Harvey, who staff and parents may remember. A few weeks later, Lord Keith Bradley OV (below centre), a former Labour MP and Minister in the Blair government, visited us. He enjoyed reminiscing about Vesey cricket, was delighted to see the pitches in such great shape (thank you Bob!) and found his name displayed twice – once on the Perry Shield for Athletics which hangs in Big School corridor and one for student leadership, the Bedggood Prize in Old Big School. Best of all, Lord Bradley spoke with great humanity and enthusiasm about his life in politics and what has inspired him in a life of public service. The quality of questions in this L6 seminar was highly impressive: very thoughtful and probing. We hope to welcome more returning alumni to BVGS next academic year!
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Goodbye and Good Luck to the Class of 2015
What a wonderful group of students the Class of 2015 are! It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to them. They are a bright, committed and friendly cohort who have distinguished themselves in so many ways whether they have been here for 2 years or indeed 7! As a Sixth Form, they have bonded well with any label of Old or New Veseyan vanishing very quickly. The Class of 2015 have shone as academics and have provided great leadership across the school whether their association be with the School Council, the Officer team, Academic Mentoring, Charities, Language Leaders, Mental Health, Music, Sporting Leadership, Drama, Cricket, Hockey, Rugby, Rowing or Tech Team. They have been excellent ambassadors for BVGS on trips, touring visitors round the school or in their dealings with other students. As usual, we held our traditional Leaving Assembly in school uniform led by Team Tom – Messrs Edge and Elliman – before changing into our customary fancy dress. Then late in June we held our Ball at the Botanical Gardens with amusing speeches from Sebastian Heley, School Captain, and Assistant Headteacher, Dave Goodwin. The photographs here show a nice contrast between the informality of Leaving Day and more formal photographs of some of our Leavers, in these cases our Medics (bottom left) and our Oxbridge leavers (bottom right). Whatever our students go on to do we wish them every happiness and success for the future. We hope they will keep in touch and are delighted that we have Leaving reps for the year group: Sebastian Heley, Mo Mirza, Elly Harrison, Matt McElroy. This will hopefully enable students to more easily keep in touch with the School and hear about various future reunions. Finally, a date for your diaries. Speech Day for the Class of 2015 will be on Friday 27 November 6.30 for 7.00 at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall. We look forward to seeing all students and parents there for this celebration.
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BVGS bucks national trend with Green success The BVGS Mock Election was a passionately fought affair with a very different outcome than the one conducted at a national level. The four candidates Janak Howard (Green), Leo Morton (Labour), Tom Breakwell (Liberal Democrat) and Sam Simper (Conservative) all acquitted themselves brilliantly throughout their campaign with some excellent speeches across the seven hustings events. Indeed it hopefully has sparked for some a lifelong interest in politics. (I was particularly impressed by 9R who went to considerable lengths to research the policies of each of the political parties). The final results were intriguing: Green Party 36.6%, Labour 27.4%, Conservatives 26.8%, Liberal Democrats 4.6%. What would the electoral map of Britain look like with those results?
Mental Health Awareness We were privileged to welcome David Wait from ACAS who delivered some very powerful training to our Mental Health Ambassadors. David was very appreciative of the interest and commitment of our students and the progress we as a school are making in supporting the ‘Time to Change’ campaign to end mental health discrimination.
Remembering the Somme You may be aware that next year on 1 July we mark the 100th anniversary of the infamous Battle of the Somme in which 60,000 British soldiers fell as casualties on the first day alone of conflict. We were lucky to have Ian Mason, History enthusiast and local policeman to talk to Year 9 and 10 about this important theme. Ian is an experienced leader of tours to the battlefields of the First World War. It was chilling to hear of the horror that soldiers as young as 12 experienced on the Somme.
UCAS Preparation This summer term has seen a huge amount of preparation for L6 UCAS applications for university. All students and parents were invited to a very useful Higher Education Evening to launch the UCAS process. Following this we have had representatives in school from UCL, Imperial College, London School of Economics, Aston University, Oxford and Cambridge Universities. We have had visits from former students such as Sam Rhodes, Chris Nowek, Célia Demarchi and visits from Cambridge Medical students Aradhana and Tarun Gupta . Now for the job of writing personal statements!
New Year 7 Induction Day The hottest day of the year saw us welcome our brand new Year 7 for their Induction Day. They made a great start to their Vesey life. The boys showed enthusiasm and a genuine commitment to get involved in all the tasks. Considering the weather, the boys were exceptional. This year saw us revise our plans for Induction Day with a much greater emphasis on group and paired tasks to develop student learning habits. The students had time to meet their new Form Tutor and enjoy taster lessons (depending on their form) in Science, Spanish, German or French. I must say that the Year 10 prefects and mentors, as well as Year 7 helpers, were absolutely brilliant in supporting our new Year 7 on that day. We look forward to welcoming our new Year 7 in September.
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Art Exhibition 2015 The summer term at BVGS always sees a flourishing of creativity. We believe that the Arts are a fundamentally important part of our curriculum. As Henry James put it forcefully, ‘It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.’
On Wednesday 17 June we held our annual Art Exhibition showcasing the work of our exam groups. As ever, I really enjoyed visiting and discussing the works on show. There were some very thought-provoking pieces, especially regarding the monarchy! Thanks to all those staff who organised the Exhibition and supported it, in particular the Art Team of Paul Atkins, Jasbir Heer and Andrea Gregory.
House Music As usual, a competitive House Music Festival was held in the Clive Richards Centre in July. Thank you to the new Head of Woodwind at the Birmingham Music Service, Charlotte Buxton, who supported Mrs Dye with the challenging adjudication process! Red House won the day!
When BVGS met the Sacconi Quartet This term saw a first for the school with us hosting the Lichfield Festival. It was a real pleasure for us to work with the amazing Sacconi Quartet. They held a Masterclass here at the school on Tuesday afternoon followed by a Wednesday evening concert collaboration. It worked really well with the quartet playing beautiful music: Jonathan Dove's 'Out of Time' as well as collaborating on jazz standards with some of our Funky Bishops. Brilliant! Thanks to Harwood's Accountants for making it possible by sponsoring the event. We are now looking forward to our next visit from Lichfield Festival as part of their Literature Festival in October.
Year 7 Performance Evening On 30 June we held our Year 7 Performance Evening. This included items from our Class Brass, Class Choir, Drama sketches, History projects, lots of lovely artwork and some thoughtful reflections about what life in 2064 might look like. In these days of considerable narrowing of our curriculum from government, we believe that it is more important than ever to provide opportunities for students to be creative and to perform. We have had some lovely feedback on the evening from students and staff alike. The homemade cheese straws and biscuits also went down very well! Thanks to our compéres Qasim Arshad and Ali Bharwani. Thanks to all the teachers and staff who made the evening possible: Saphran Ali, Brass Teacher, Paul Atkins, Head of Art, Zylpha Clarke, Creative Writing Teacher, Maryann Dye, Director of Music, Sarah Slater, Acting Head of English, Jim Goldstraw, History Department, Jasbir Heer, Art Department, the Year 7 Cookery Club, assisted by Vivienne Green, Head of Maths and Tom Williams, Head of Year 11, Lesley Overton, Sharon Weblin, Jayne Joyce, Kate Steadman and Ruth Hearn.
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July 2015
Duke of Edinburgh On the first weekend in July we held our Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Silver Expeditions in the Malvern Hills. Our 54 students successfully avoided the worst of the extreme weather and the students were absolutely fantastic. To quote a nearby camper: 'they are a credit to the school, excellently behaved and even provided great evening entertainment!' A big thank you to our dedicated Duke of Edinburgh team, led by Tom Greenwood and ably supported by Cara Lawson, Lewis Graham and Jim Goldstraw. Claudia Haywood and Toni Brunton-Douglas from the Upper Sixth have been awarded the Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, Claudia was the first person from Vesey to complete her Gold D of E. Oliver Ayto has also recently been awarded Gold.
Sutton Community Games Vesey students volunteered as ‘Gamesmakers’ at the recent Sutton Community Games. They all worked extremely hard and in particular two students over the entire course of the event (both in preplanning and execution) proved to be standard bearers in terms of Vesey Volunteers. Their support was immeasurable and of the highest service-oriented standard: Connor Walton and Jonathan Watson. Dr Reilly comments on Jonathan thus, ‘I have rarely encountered a student so prepared to support a charitable cause via hard work and graft’.
Mocktail EPQ Celebration In June Old Big School was transformed into a fashionable London hotel for our end of year celebration of all students who completed an Extended Project Qualification. Fruit 'mocktails' were served with canapés by Year 10 to our Lower Sixth guests. Awards were given to a couple of our outstanding students namely Josiah McNeill for his project on 'Queer Art' and 'Social Change' and Jamie Mair's project whereby he made his own scientific calculator software. Thank you so much to Adrian Reilly, Teacher i/c Enrichment and Lesley Overton, Exams and Business Support without whose amazing support this inspiring celebration would never have happened.
Paralympians visit Vesey On the same day the Sixth Form was treated to a visit from the double gold medallist Danielle Brown MBE (Paralympian Archer) who gave an inspirational and interactive talk to the Sixth Form about performing under pressure. We also welcomed Jonathan BroomeEdwards, Paralympian Medallist. you to our inspiring visitors
Thank
Archery Thanks to Mr Maskell from Sutton Archery Club for putting on a great activity for Year 7 students in Games. Here you can see the boys lining up to demonstrate their skills.
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July 2015
Rhineland Visit 11 - 15 June 2015 48 Y8 students, accompanied by Rudi Götschel, Mark Keeble, April Slater, Alex Davis and Sally Arrandale enjoyed a 5-day trip to Cologne and the Rhineland. Highlights of the trip included a visit to the breath-taking Kölner Dom, a river cruise down the Rhine, a visit to the magnificent Marksburg castle, the ever popular Lindt chocolate museum and factory, the Olympic museum (more football on the roof top!), the Deutsche Eck + cable car, a day at the amazing Phantasialand theme park and a stop-off in beautiful Bruges on the way home to buy more chocolate for the loved ones back home. The boys also really enjoyed the experience of sampling authentic German food and practising their language skills. Overall a fantastic trip, the boys doing themselves and our school proud without exception! Wunderbar!
German Exchange, Bayreuth, 20 - 28 June 2015 Rudi Götschel and Laura Diprose accompanied 17 students on their visit to their German exchange partners in Bayreuth. This was the 18th anniversary of the exchange. Students visited the Nazi Documentation Centre and the Imperial Castle in Nürnberg, had a day in the world heritage city of Bamberg (with a very entertaining guide), and hiked up the Ochsenkopf (Bull’s Head) in the Fichtelgebirge (Pine mountains) together with their German partners to find out what the German concept of ‘Wanderlust’ is all about. We also visited a brewery in Kulmbach, the secret beer capital of Germany to learn all about the Germans’ favourite drink (but obviously only drinking lemonade) and had a chance to sample the famous Bratwurst. Our boys also experienced some lessons in various subjects and some bravely joined in. The German host families were very friendly and generous and really enjoyed our boys’ company, who in return proved very popular and keen to learn the language, sample the food and thoroughly enjoy the German/ Bavarian/ Franconian way of life. Hopefully this visit has inspired the boys to do well in their GCSE exams and beyond. Special credit amongst a splendid group of youngsters, who were superb ambassadors for their school and their country.
Year 7 Trip to Pitt Rivers Natural History Museums Mrs Heer and Mr Atkins arranged an Art Trip to go to museums in Oxford. Students completed a series of drawings from Dinosaurs skeletons to weapons and artefacts from all around the World. Students were blown away by what they saw, overwhelmed by learning about rituals and objects from different cultures. ‘This is the best museum I have ever been to’ said Patrick Tyrrell (LO) and many others agreed they really enjoyed the day! During the day and lunch we were meet by Dan Hicks OV, Associate Professor of Archaeology at Oxford University and Curator of Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers. Dan is still passionate about BVGS. He spoke to the students about Archaeology and striving to come to Oxford University! Mrs Heer will develop links with Dan Hicks for the future. A brilliant trip! Students worked extremely well and really enjoyed this experience. Their work was displayed in Big School for the Year 7 Performance Evening.
Dreadlock Alien descends on BVGS Dreadlockalien (left), one of the hardest working artists in the West Midlands, paid his annual visit to school during the last week of term. He performed poetry and slam sets and continues to push the boundaries of live literature. His urban hip-hop dub flow verse delivery of words and concepts address social issues such as citizenship, identity, immigration and Black British experiences - education before entertainment. At the end of the visit, the poet wrote ‘Many thanks for your hospitality and smiles, great day, great poems’.
French Exchange On 21 June Jane Broughton led the annual French Exchange to Dreux. On a visit to Chartres the students attended a stained glass window workshop (below), where they were all shown how to produce a small piece of stained glass.
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Meeting with a Cosmonaut On the 21 May Aidan Croghan went to the Science Museum in London to see and meet Alexei Leonov. Alexei is the cosmonaut who made history when on the 18 March 1965 he became the first man to perform a spacewalk. Alexei gave a lecture using just a chalkboard and chalk. He is a talented artist and the audience was taken along on an incredible journey as he drew and described the progress of the Voskhod 2 mission, and their exploration of space. Look out for the film ‘First Time’ about this incredible event; expected to be released in 2016.
Literary Prize-Winner
Congratulations to Louis Pottinger who won the Anthony Horowitz short story competition. Here is Louis being congratulated by Stuart Hutchieson, Head of Year 9.
New Rowing Boats We recently held a ceremony at Powell’s Pool to name our two new boats 'Big Husky' and 'Little Husky', donated very kindly by one of our parents. This occasion brought our now large rowing community together for a lovely celebration and saw some excellent races at Year 8 and 9 level as well as a very tough race, won by the school between the first IV and the OV team. Thanks to Ian Bousfield, Min Egan and all of the staff who have brought rowing to the healthy position it is in today.
Personal Challenge Finlay McLoskey recently climbed the ‘Three Peaks’ to raise money for charity. Approximately £1,110 has been raised already with more funds to collect in. Scafell Pike was his first climb and the party approached it from the wrong angle making the journey longer and adding more time onto the ascent and descent. He found Snowdon the easiest as in his view, there was no challenging terrain. Ben Nevis was the most challenging for him, especially with thick snow for the last 200m and low visibility due to thick fog and slippy ice not to mention the two 800ft drops on either sides of the Mountain. However Finlay comments, ‘As we we’re just about to begin our descent the fog cleared and we could see for miles around’. The view is almost always worth the effort!
Campaign for Skate Park Matty Keating from Year 7 (left) has been campaigning for a skate park for his local community. Matty has attended meetings with various members of the council and councillors and it appears that he may be well on his way to getting a skate park for Clayhanger Park.
Rowing Success Blenheim Palace Regatta . The boys rowed well and overcame some steering challenges due to the strong cross wind on the day. See our winners below. Year 8 coxed quad: Matt Berry, Matt Burrows, Tom Shephard, Oliver Hadley & Matt Prince, Year 9 coxed quad: Matt Goring, Joss Bird, Chester Powell, Tommo Priestley & James Horn
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Attain Travel is a proud sponsor of Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School Sports
OVA Sports Day 28 June saw us hold our now annual OVA Sports Day with competitive netball, cricket, hockey and tennis between our alumni and the school. It was brilliantly organised and well-attended and was blessed by some great weather. There were some tough games for the school, especially in hockey, but when it came to cricket, the school, as shown by Oliver Wem, receiving his trophy from the Chair of the OVA, Paul Wallis, were triumphant. Great Day! Next year we add rowing to our list of competitive fixtures - put 26 June 2016 in your diaries!
BVGS Sports Day
Wednesday 29 April saw our Annual Sports Day which was a closely fought affair. (see right) There were also a few records broken. Yr 7 100m - Charlie Giblin -13.07 Secs, Yr 10 Shot Matthew Price - 12m. 20cm, Senior Girls Javelin - Bethany Jones - 23.78, Senior Girls Long Jump- Martha Hutchings - 4m.08
Year 7 Residential As the academic year draws to a close, the Year 7s this week have enjoyed their residential to Whitemoor Lakes, near Alrewas. As usual, they began their trip with a visit to the National Memorial Arboretum, where there was a moving service of remembrance. They then moved across the road to an exciting array of activities with climbing, abseiling, zipwires, raft building, canoeing and orienteering all on the menu. Thanks to Kevin Doughty and his excellent team of staff helpers for a well-organised, memorable trip. More information on the full range of activities week in September
Farewells and Welcomes As we come to the end of the academic year, it is a time of farewells and welcomes. We will miss our Leavers of 2015. They have all made their own distinctive contributions to Vesey life. A big thank you to Natalie Ashby, our outstanding teacher of Law and Paul Atkins, who, has led Art while Emma Rowlands has been on maternity leave, and has thrown himself into the life of the School, even organising an Art sale for the Growing Vesey, Growing Minds Campaign. Thanks also to Phil Baker OV, Vesey Ambassador, Philippa Connell and Julie King, who leave us having made brilliant contributions to our Campaign. Jane Broughton, who has been with us since 2009 in the French department, is retiring after an outstanding, distinguished career inspiring students with a love of Languages. She leaves us the legacy of our annual French Exchange with the Lycee St Pierre- Paul, Dreux, which she has arranged throughout her time with us. We wish her a long and happy retirement. We also say goodbye to Beth Gainford, Head of Lower Sixth and Andrew Whittle OV, Physics department. Both staff have made exceptional contributions to school life as teachers and in offering a huge array of extra-curricular opportunities for our students from music and skiing to Bushcraft and rugby. We wish them both well in their new roles at Warwick School. Maternity cover in the History department, Jim Goldstraw, also leaves us. We are very grateful for all his History expertise as well as his contributions to debating, hockey and the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. Also good luck to Alex Gray, Head of Biology, a passionate advocate of Building Learning Habits, who moves us to the rather sunnier climes of the GEMS Wellington International School in Dubai, and James Ellor and Paul Stockdale, who have both given great service in Biology this year. The English Department also loses two talented teachers: Megan Semple and Sarah Slater, who have both generously given much to our extra-curricular programme. Sarah, for example, valiantly led two excellent productions over the last 4 years: Guys and Dolls and Grease. Last but not least, we say goodbye to Davina Jackson, who moves on to KE Handsworth Girls. We are very grateful for her contribution to the education of our students and her support and enthusiasm for the extra-curricular life of the school, in particular Vesey Netball. We will miss all our leavers and we wish them well for the future. We welcome a number of our new staff for September. They are looking forward to joining the Vesey community: Daniel Bradley and Nicholas Yates (Physics Department), Claire Masterson-Lemin and Bethany Colder (English Department), Jay Lal OV (Chemistry), Alex Phillips (Mathematics), Doug Semple (Head of Computing) from the English School In Brussels and two new staff in Biology, Saffira Dandha and Helen Perrera, who we are delighted to welcome back to BVGS as Head of Department. We also welcome back from maternity leave: Fahima Asha, Emma Rowlands, Ruth Haywood (Head of English) and Hannah Storey (Head of History) http://www.bvgs.co.uk/alumni/alumni-community