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Bablake School
Bablakeevents Shell Mini Olympics
Other events
The first major school event of the year was the Shell Mini Olympics. Predictably, even before the first event had taken place, there was a great deal of deliberation over the weather. Thankfully, the rain stayed away and the sixth annual Olympics went ahead as planned. This year, there were eight events which ranged from the obstacle course to the extremely popular and rather obscure event known as welly-wanging. As usual, there was a fantastic turnout of enthusiastic Shell formers, accompanied by their enthusiastic parents who shouted encouragement whilst their children were talking the challenging courses set. The day proved to be a great success. As they say, it’s the taking part that counts but it’s also the winning! Huge congratulations to CROW House who were the deserved winners as they took the crown for the boys and were joint with FAIRFAX house for the girls, thus winning the overall title. Many thanks to the House staff and the sixth formers for the hard work that went into the organisation of the event and also to the Parents’ Association for providing refreshments. K
INTER-HOUSE PUBLIC SPEAKING CONTEST Anyone who attended last year’s Inter-House Public Speaking contest and thought that the result was close – and after all only seventeen points out of a possible total of three hundred separated the four houses – should have come along to this year’s event. The school theatre was again the venue, and a large audience saw Bayley triumph by a single point over Fairfax. Wheatley and Crow, however, both did themselves enormous credit: they were within eleven points of the winners. Bayley’s winning trio of Jamie Stefaniak, Sareena Kainth and Sam Brown spoke on the subject of Obesity and how it threatens modern society. Jamie, the main speaker, skilfully addressed this serious subject in a fairly light-hearted way, but one which was sensitive to its sufferers and engaged his audience. Puns at the expense of fast food outlets formed a recurring theme of his speech. The main speakers of the other three teams also brought a great deal of rhetorical potential to the day: Kate Byrne spoke passionately against bull fighting; Jonathan Smith railed against the exploitation of sweatshops; Hannah Sheard sensitively addressed the most emotive subject of the contest, euthanasia. The Chairpersons and proposers for each team ably supported their colleagues. Overall, these pupils, all of whom are in the Second, Third and Fourth forms, proved that the future of Public Speaking and Debating at Bablake is in very safe hands. K
Jane Tse, House Captain, Crow House
INTERNATIONAL WEEK
Monday 21 – Saturday 26 November INTERNATIONAL WEEK INVOLVES A WHOLE VARIETY OF EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES AT BABLAKE. SATURDAY WILL BE THE KEY OCCASION AS FAR AS PARENTS ARE CONCERNED WITH A VARIETY OF WORKSHOPS FOR PEOPLE TO BOOK INTO. THESE RANGE FROM CHINESE, ITALIAN AND INDIAN COOKERY TO AROMATHERAPY, AFRICAN DRUMMING AND BATIK. IN THE EVENING WE WILL HOLD AN INTERNATIONAL CONCERT, FOLLOWED BY FOOD FROM AROUND THE WORLD. IT IS USUALLY A BUSY BUT SUPERB DAY.
YOUNG LINGUIST COMPETITION At the beginning of the Summer holidays, four pupils – Saba Ghadimzadeh, Mubeen Iqbal, Jamie Stefaniak and Jennifer Bufton – represented the school at the Young Linguist of the Year competition at Nottingham High School. All pupils performed very well and, although they didn’t win, were praised for the high level of their language skills. This year’s competition will take place shortly at Warwick School, so fourth and lower sixth-form pupils – work on your language skills! K JUNIOR QUIZ On Wednesday 27 April, the Junior Quiz Team, comprising Sam Mason, Emily Sheard, Jonathan Smith (Captain), and Oliver Towlson, travelled to King’s School, Worcester to compete in the Regional Rounds of the nationwide Schools Challenge. In the first rounds, we were drawn against King’s, Worcester and Wrekin College. The first game, against King’s, started well, but the boys from Worcester fought back strongly to win the game 480:370. Although we then went on to win the game against Wrekin College, Worcester also won against them, which meant that it was King’s Worcester who went through to the semifinals. The eventual winners of the Regional Final were King Edward’s High School. Congratulations to the team for their enthusiasm and willingness to play, and we look forward to next year’s matches. K