beyondtheclassroom
else have Bablake’s pupils beyond What been up to in 2009/10? the classroom shorts Speech and Drama Matthew Hayhurst began the academic year with two proud public speaking moments. Firstly he recited In Flanders Fields at the Bedworth Armistice Day parade and service and then was awarded first place for humorous verse at the Coventry Festival of Speech and Drama. Chess International John Naylor coached our teams early in the season. His approach was innovative and exciting, putting the players in sharp middle game positions where the initiative was key, and improvement in all our players was noticeable. The highlight of the season was the Coventry Schools Lightning Competition with 32 players from all the schools in the area. After six exciting rounds, Robert Chowne went into his last game knowing a win would give him the title. Unfortunately he was playing the 2nd best player in the country! Despite an early advantage, in the end he lost and finished 4th overall. Tom Chen showed why he was our most consistent player this season by finishing 2nd, an excellent performance. We finished 3rd in division 1 of the Coventry Schools League with the leading players being: 9 – Tom Chen; 8 – Rory Doherty, Michael Whitlow; 6.5 – Robert Chowne, Jim Chen. For the third year in the row, we will now lose our A team to university but with very few older players to replace them, there is the opportunity for younger players to prove themselves. Thanks go to Mr Smith for all his help as well as to Mr. Rowlands who kindly donated a Bablake Chess cup for a 16 player knockout tournament. In a close final Daniel Rowlands beat Jim Chen.
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the wheatleyan 2009/10
Brain Club After Eva Ball’s tremendous achievement in 2009 when she became the UK Schools’ Memory champion, Brain Club started using some of the mind-mapping software Eva won for the school. Her progress was closely followed by a Japanese TV crew that shadowed Eva at Bablake for a day. Maths Challenge Second year pupils Elliot Forbes and Danujan Sivanesan teamed up with Kate French and Lara Morley-White from the year above to win their regional round of the Junior Maths Challenge, beating 10 other schools for a place at the National Finals. Maths teacher, Mr Shoyeb Memon was very proud of the team, saying: ‘It really was great to see two year groups working so closely and so effectively together.’