ISSUE 7
BEVIN’S FAVOURITE BOOKS REVEALED SUMMER
2014 PO2 SUMMER SCHOOL FOR SIXTH FORMERS AT IVY LEAGUE UNIVERSITIES PO3 MUSICIANS, MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES AND A CHARITY SWIM TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT PO4 BEVIN’S ‘FLASH READS’ – PUPILS RECOMMEND THEIR FAVOURITE BOOKS PO6 DOCUMENTING ANOTHER YEAR OF SPORTING SUCCESS AT BEVIN PO8 AN INVITATION TO OUR OPEN DAYS: EVERYONE WELCOME
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SUMMER SCHOOL
WELCOME
Mike Chivers and Rukhsana Sheikh, Principals Produced from mixed sources and the process is chlorine free. Contact Fiona Wilkins, Ernest Bevin College, Beechcroft Road, London SW17 7DF T: 020 8772 5766 E: fwilkins@ernestbevin.wandsworth.sch.uk Photography: Adrian Pegg Whilst every care has been taken to ensure that the data in this publication is accurate, we cannot accept, and hereby disclaim, any liability to any party to loss or damage caused by errors or omissions resulting from negligence, accident or any other cause. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form. ©Ernest Bevin College. All rights reserved 2014.
Photo: Toni Marshall
As another busy year at Ernest Bevin College draws to a close it is a good time to celebrate some of the achievements of the school and its pupils. One of the big all-school projects this year has been a focus on literacy and reading through our ‘Flash Reads’ – 20 minutes each week when everyone stops lessons and picks up a book. A number of boys share some of their favourite books on pages 4&5 to hopefully give you a few ideas of books you might enjoy reading too. In 2014-15 we will be further extending this focus on literacy with an accelerated reading programme and a 20-minute reading period every afternoon at registration. The Sixth Form continues to grow and each year prepares many young people for the world of work, apprenticeships, training and, of course, university. As the world becomes a more competitive place we are pleased that more and more of our students are taking hold of the many opportunities on offer to them including summer schools. Read on pages 2&3 about two students, Cameron & Sagar, who have places at Harvard & Yale Universities as part of the Sutton Trust US summer school programme. 2013-14 has been another busy and successful year for the many athletes and sports teams who represent Ernest Bevin College. Read all about their triumphs and medals on pages 6&7. Finally, we are already looking forward to welcoming our new intake of Year 7 and also prospective students who are interested in applying to EBC next year. Details of our autumn open events can be found on the back page.
Cameron Carrington will be spending time at Harvard University in the US
Ernest Bevin College lessons may have finished for the
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ixth-former Sagar Deb recalls that it was Mr Day, Head of Careers, who told him about the Sutton Trust US programme: “I visited their website, saw a little button saying ‘US programme’ and clicked on it,” he says. The rest, as they say is history. In August, Sagar will fly to the USA as part of a party of 175 British Sixth Formers including fellow Bevin student, Cameron Carrington. Sagar will spend the week at Yale University, Connecticut and Cameron at Harvard University, Massachusetts – two of the world’s leading universities. “I’ve always wanted to go to the US,” says Cameron. And when he’s asked what it is about the trip that he is most excited by, he smiles and says, “I probably shouldn’t say this, but we get to go to a Boston Red Sox baseball game.” Dig a little deeper though and it is clear that both Cameron and Sagar have done their homework and will be spending their week in the USA doing a lot more than watching baseball games. “The US system is very attractive because they offer packages of financial support to students who do very well in their entry tests,” explains Sagar. Sagar is interested in studying Biomedicine/Biochemistry in the US, a course which runs in parallel to five years studying Medicine in the UK, and importantly
is viewed with equal prestige by potential employers. The other advantage of the US system, he says, is that even as an undergraduate you have the opportunity to work with some of the top professors, where as in the UK this is a privilege you usually have to wait for until you become a postgraduate student. Cameron, who is studying Maths, Physics, Chemistry and DT Graphics in Bevin Sixth Form, has other reasons for looking to the US for his undergraduate studies. “I like the idea that you don’t have to choose just one subject but instead can major in different subjects and keep up with a wider range when you haven’t yet decided what you would really like to focus in on.” Cameron has already earned six caps playing volleyball for England so he is also looking at sports scholarships in the US, which offers plenty of opportunities to play professional volleyball. Although both are clearly enthusiastic about the opportunities on offer in the USA, EBC 6th Formers can take part in any number of extra-curricular activities throughout the year. In April 2014, 6th Formers visited China through our link with the London South Bank University’s Confucius Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
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Sagar Deb is spending a week at Yale University in the US
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Musicians Entertain Tennis Fans The Wandsworth Pops Orchestra, featuring some of the borough’s most talented young musicians, including nine boys from Ernest Bevin College, entertained crowds at the Wimbledon tennis tournament on Ladies’s quarter finals day. They played a programme of light music including the official Wimbledon theme ‘Purple and Green’. Tyreke Bartley (playing clarinet above) says: “It was a great experience to play at Wimbledon and see the players walk past.”
summer but not all Sixth Formers are taking a break neither are burning their bridges here. Sagar has been attending the K Plus programme at Kings College which helps Sixth Formers write the perfect personal statement on the all-important UCAS forms, meet with undergraduates and admission tutors, as well as attend workshops in preparation for university. Sagar will also complement his CV with a week’s work experience at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where he hopes to talk to doctors and visit different wards. Meanwhile Cameron has arranged a week’s work experience at an architecture firm and attended the UCL programme and other taster sessions. He will also take part in an American camp for volleyball at the end of August with other members of Bevin’s volleyball team. Cameron and his teammates will be hoping to impress the American scouts who are coming to Bevin on the look-out for British talent. There are also plenty of opportunities on offer closer to home. Arjun Patel, for example, who is studying Computing, Physics, Maths and Further Maths, will spend four days of his summer holiday in the Computer Science Department at Cambridge University. “There are many opportunities out there for students to apply for in order to enhance their university or job applications,” says Mr Day. “It does require some effort from the student to send off applications but I cannot stress enough the benefits of having a range of experiences to refer to when writing your UCAS university applications in the autumn.”
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So the days of lazy summer holidays may be numbered for many Bevin Sixth Formers, but it appears the alternatives on offer can open up a whole new world of opportunities.
175 students were chosen for the Sutton Trust US Programme 2014 from an original pool of over 2,000 eligible applicants in the United Kingdom. The aim of the US programme is to encourage academically talented, low and middle income British students to consider studying at American universities. Selected students come from across the UK and many will be the first in their family to go to university. Students participate in a summer school in the US at either the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), Yale or Harvard (which joined the programme this year). They will spend a week living on campus and visit a number of other US universities in the area. Participants benefit from residential activities and receive an intensive programme of support, which is delivered by the US-UK Fulbright Commission over a number of months. This covers admission tests, college choices and help with applications.
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Sky Skills Studio Red Tie students had an early boost to their GCSE Media studies course when they visited Sky Academy Skills Studio after school as part of Slenky’s Shot programme for young people. The group of 10 students made their own news bulletin using state of the art equipment in Sky News’ training studio. “The first topic for the Media Studies course is TV news, so our students have been given a fantastic head start,” explains Mr Dickie, teacher of Media Studies.
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Bevin Swim Challenge Blue Tie teachers Mr Lewis and Miss Baum will be swimming over 4.5km from the Hampshire coast to the Isle of Wight in August in aid of the Ellen McArthur Cancer Trust. During the summer term, four Blue Tie students challenged themselves to match that distance. “I’ve enjoyed swimming before school and taking part in the challenge,” says Dejean Bartley. To sponsor the students go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BevinSwim
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Jeffrey Sackey
Jawad Abubakar
“ BEVIN BOOKS Over the year a series of ‘flash reads’ – where everyone in college stops what they are doing to read for 20 minutes – have encouraged boys to pick up a book. Here, some of Bevin’s most avid readers recommend their favourite books
I love reading. I go to my local library ... and the Bevin library at lunchtime most days. I read every spare moment
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My favourite book is Being by Kevin Brooks, I highly recommend it. It’s about a boy who goes to the doctors for a check-up and ends up getting framed for the murder of Kamal, the anaesthetist, so he goes on the run to Spain. I like it because it is an action story but there are lots of plot turns and you don’t really know what is going to happen next. I love reading. I go to my local library because it is a place where I am comfortable. I also go to the Bevin library at lunchtime most days. I read every spare moment I have. We even got our books out in a Maths lesson once when the teacher was talking to another boy!
I recently started reading the Percy Jackson series but my favourite book is Witches by Roald Dahl. It’s about a boy who goes to live with his grandmother in Norway. She tells him stories about witches who hate children. He uncovers a plot by the Grand High Witch to poison all the children in the world and together with his grandmother he turns the tables on the witches and poisons them instead. I love to dive into a book and forget about the real world. I carry a book with me everywhere I go and will read whenever I have a minute: on the way to school, waiting outside a classroom as well as at break and lunchtime.
Glen Higginbotham
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If you’ve had a bad day, you can read and imagine you’ve had a very different day
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I love to dive into a book and forget about the world. I carry a book with me wherever I go and read whenever I’ve a minute
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I have lots of favourite books but I have chosen the Hunger Games. I know it sounds cruel to make a television series about young people fighting to the death but I can see why it would make a compelling television series as depicted in the book. I also like the Alex Cross series by James Patterson about a detective in Washington DC. I like a series because I never run out of books to read. He started writing it before I was born so I don’t have to cross my fingers until the next book comes out! Whenever I have a spare minute, I like to read. If you’ve had a bad day, you can sit down to read and imagine you’ve had a very different day. My mum taught me to read before I started at nursery. I think I would like to be a writer when I grow up, I am already writing books: the first is a series called Double Trouble, the other is called Meg Belengai, because it rhymes with ‘private eye’, which will give you an idea what it is about.
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Hazzan Olalemi Animal Farm is my favourite book because the book is a whole case of irony; the animals start out not wanting to become the tyrants that the humans were, but in the end they become just like that themselves. It was hard to choose my favourite between Animal Farm and 1984, also by George Orwell. I read Animal Farm first but I like 1984 because I think Orwell does really good dystopian novels. My English teachers have encouraged me to read books I may not have read otherwise, for example The Count of Monte Cristo this year. I also tried to read Ulysses by James Joyce but found it really hard as there are whole paragraphs with no punctuation. I cheated a bit by missing out some of the really dense paragraphs but I did get about three quarters through. I think it is harder to read authors who wrote a long time ago: their books are a lot slower in pace and more descriptive in style than modern books.
Hamzah Rahman
Nico Sookram-Brown
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My favourite book is ‘My Family and Other Animals’ because it inspires us to think about how nature impacts our lives
I like reading series of books like the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. The main protagonist is really smart and it shows how the life of a boy who is intelligent can become a negative thing. There is also a whole other world beneath the science in the book, a world of magic complete with magic elves. I like a bit of magic in the books I read! I’ve been a really avid reader since Year 7 and have read a lot, including Harry Potter, Cherub, Hunger Games and Anthony Horowitz’ Power of Five. I’m currently working my way through The Game of Thrones. I read every day, probably for about an hour. When I read I go into my own world, which is very creative. I also like writing and have met authors like Alexander Gordon Smith, who wrote the Furnace series, through talks he has given at school. It was really inspiring to hear how he gets his ideas, and his idea of the story behind the 15-year-old boy who ends up in a high security prison becomes believable.
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My English teachers have encouraged me to read books I may not have otherwise
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My favourite book is My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell because it inspires the reader to think about how nature impacts our lives. It’s a story about the Durrell family who move to the Greek Island of Corfu to escape the English weather, and in particular from the point of view of 12-year-old Gerald who is fascinated with the animal life on the island. Gerald Durrell paints a great picture of Corfu and I would really like to go and visit it myself. I definitely read more now. I go to my local library every week and I carry a book with me all the time. Other students often ask me what I am reading and whether it is any good.
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I like reading series of books like Artemis Fowl... I like a bit of magic in my books
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Elliot McKenzie
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I have shed tears over books, screamed in anger and laughed in joy
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If you are not in awe or captivated by a book within the first 10 seconds of reading, put it down! Too many people force themselves to get into a book, pushing our love of them away without noticing. A book shouldn’t be a chore; it should be an experience where the words become a story and the story becomes an unforgettable experience. That is what I look for. Veronica Roth’s Divergent teen trilogy, John Green’s critically acclaimed The Fault in Our Stars, and crime genre queen Martina Cole’s The Revenge are books I would happily read again. I have not only enjoyed them immensely, but I’ve learnt lessons from them: lessons of communication, family, love and life. When you finish a book, it should change you a bit, for the better. It should make you mature, and you should be able to apply lessons to the future. The library at EBC has been a sanctuary and a learning cove for me as I mature into a young adult. I have shed tears over books, screamed in anger and laughed in joy; that’s what books do for me and can do the same for you.
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SWIMMING ixth Former Aymeric Bouyer is competing at the British National Swimming competition in Swansea. Aymeric will be competing in the freestyle events at 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m. He will also compete in the 100m backstroke and 50m fly. Aymeric went to the Nationals two years ago and is hoping to improve on his times. Aymeric started swimming at primary school and was recommended for a scholarship at the Leander Swimming Club who use the Bevin pool. Aymeric now trains 16 hours a week which includes pool sessions from 6-8 am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, plus evenings split between the gym and pool with an afternoon session on Sunday. On Saturday, his ‘day off’, Aymeric coaches
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younger children in the Leander swim academy and is hoping to complete his advance level coaching certificate this summer. Aymeric was voted ‘Swimmer of the Year’ by his fellow swimmers and ‘Swimmer of the Squad’ by the coaches. He clearly has his sights set high: “I hope to be at least top ten in some of the events I am swimming in; and in the long term, who knows, maybe the Commonwealth Games or even the Olympics would be nice.” Watch this space!
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SPORT HIGHS 2013-2014 has been another incredibly successful year for the young sportsmen at Ernest Bevin College. Here’s a round-up of some of the highlights from the sporting year
he U13 cricket team took an emphatic win at the Surrey Indoor County Final to become U13 County Champions. They faced five teams from schools around the county in a round robin. The Blue Ties won all their matches with 77 being the highest score they had to chase. “We won the right to represent Inner London at the County Finals by not losing a single match in the heats held at the Kia Oval,” explained team captain Rizwan Butt. “It felt even better to keep our unbeaten record in the finals and bring the trophy home.” The outdoor cricket season saw Years 7-10 compete in many fixtures. Year 7 managed to win very convincingly against St Cecelia’s, a game in which Saqlain Aftab took 5 wickets. Year 8 had a very exciting tied match with Rutlish School, being led superbly by Rizwan
Butt, and with Bilal Muhammad and Afaq Malik batting well. Year 9 have been ever present at morning nets and look like they will have a strong season next year. Finally, Year 10 have improved greatly from their first game of the season and have taken on board feedback which has been shown in their last couple of matches. They also have a very well organised and passionate captain in Maulood Ahmad.
TABLE TENNIS he table tennis squad has a large number of enthusiastic young players who have been developing their skills and making their mark on the local competition circuit. One notable performance came from Zion Boumpoutou who qualified for the U13 English Schools Individual Championships, which was held at the end of April. This was Zion’s first taste of such a large competition and he did well to win one of his four matches, including a very narrow loss to the number two seed. Zion, who has been playing table tennis for a year, said “I love this game, its techniques and the mental power
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you need to do well. The Nationals were a friendly competition and I met new rivals.” Sixth Former Lobsang Lama (pictured far right of squad photo) continues to compete at a high level and has been chosen to be featured by Greenhouse as a role model for younger players.
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JUDO ast year the judo team achieved the title of National Schools Champions by topping the medal table at the 2013 British Schools Championships. Reproducing similar results this year was going to be a challenge because many of the team members are now ineligible to compete because they are already British champions or have a place in the GB and England squads! However, the team brought home two medals: Festus Ahorlu former national schools silver medallist, fought in the weight above his usual one and clinched the national title at under 60kgs in a pulsating final. Lionel Sola-Malonga, fighting at under 73kgs, blitzed his way to the semi-final where a mistake allowed his opponent to catch him with a contest-winning throw, but he went on to win the bronze. The English Open Under 20 & Senior Championships took place the following day. This represented a serious challenge because our judoka were at the lower end of the age band. The boys stepped up to the challenge and acquitted themselves well, winning matches against older and more experienced competitors. Notable performances were achieved by Adam Adaman who won a bronze medal, as did Leo Muniz in the under 60kg category.
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In June, the Judo squad once again proved their dominance by taking the London Youth Games title for the fifth year in a row. Our older boys really lived up to their reputation as they scooped up six golds, one silver and one bronze. Despite tough competition, we managed to win the title by virtue of having one bronze more than Enfield. Our most junior boys, although falling short in medals, acquitted themselves well and promised much for the future.
VOLLEYBALL he U16 Volleyball squad (pictured right) stormed their way to the final of the National Volleyball Cup held in Kettering at the end of March. Sadly they were beaten by a strong team from Wessex but, with six players from Year 9 who will have two more years at this age group, the experience will stand the team in good stead for the future. “The semi-final was the best match I have played, it felt really good to win our way to the finals,” said captain Arran Simon, who has recently received his call up to the England Cadet squad. Meanwhile Sixth Fomer Cameron Carrington earned his first six England Caps this season and has progressed to the England Junior Squad, where he is being coached by ex-Bevin student Jordan Dalrymple. The Volleyball team also won their right to represent Wandsworth at the London Youth Games final in July. They, like the Judo squad, were defending their title from 2013 and did not disappoint, taking gold medal position and adding to the Team Wandsworth points total. Bevin Volleyball Coach, Ashley Trodden, said: “The team fully understood the importance of the extra 50 points available for taking gold in the volleyball final. The teams’ experience, unity and resilience
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ultimately helped them secure the gold with a dominant straight sets victory in the final.” Their win, together with contributions from the other Wandsworth teams (including our Judo & Athletics squads), enabled Wandsworth to win the London Youth Games title for the second year in a row.
ATHLETICS he Athletics squads have had another successful season. The Year 8 squad represented Wandsworth at the London Youth Games Indoor Athletics Championships held at Crystal Palace in April. They faced some big and fast opposition but took a well-earned bronze medal. As competition switched from Indoor to Outdoor, individual performances of note amongst the Junior (Years 7&8) squad included Mohamed Mohamud who won the 800m and qualified for the London Championships. Mohammed also ran the Mini London Marathon for Wandsworth, an event for young people that takes places at the same time as the London Marathon. The Senior (Years 9, 10 & 11) Athletics squad also made their mark on District and London championships. Two students won their events at the London Championships thus earning their place at the National Schools Athletics Championship. Adam Ssali won the 100m hurdle event and, although unplaced in the Nationals, he also picked up a bronze medal in the 4 x100m relay final. Jordan Wilson came a very
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credible 11th in the National Shot Put competition and is in a good position to come back next year as he will still be eligible to compete. This is a major achievement in the world of athletics and both boys should be congratulated for representing London & Bevin in the national arena.
S CHOOL AGAIN :: RUNNERS UP IN NATIONAL VOLLEYBALL FINALS