Out of the Blue - Spring 2020

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SPRING 2020

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outof theblue

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The Blue Coat School Founded by the Church of England in 1722

The Golden Ticket

Mischief Managed!

Year 4 delight with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory performance.

Wizards,witches and muggles assemble for Harry Potter Night.

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From the study…

At the start of this term, nobody could have foretold the current state of affairs, globally and in our own small world here.

As I write, the only pupils attending Blue Coat are those of our brave and totally dedicated key workers.

In these unprecedented circumstances, we can only look ahead with hope and, from a scholastic viewpoint, look back on a productive term. How much we have achieved even without the full number of weeks!

I hope that the Bible story of Martha and Mary, retold in 3MH’s recent assembly, serves to remind us that ‘we are all in this together’. We can share positive, happy stories to combat grave news that bombards us daily.

Let the BCS family stand united. ‘Individually strong, unbreakable as one.’

Take care, everyone. Stay safe. We hope to see you back in school very soon.

Noel Neeson, Headmaster

Term Round Up The new year began with the School being shortlisted for three prestigious awards: by the Times for Prep/Pre-Prep School of the Year, secondly for our Strategic Education Initiative – The BCS Blue; thirdly by the i25 Excellence Awards which recognise the top 25 independent sector’s influencers and motivators.

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The news was awash with Brexit broadcasts and leadership debates, but minds at BCS were gratefully focused on an exciting term ahead. In the first two weeks alone, we had already competed in our first fixtures of the year, taken enrichment visits to Singers Hill Synagogue and St. Augustine’s Church, experienced the magic of Indonesian gamelan and constructed a Taj Mahal out of bamboo!

Parents were invited to a Mathematics Mastery workshop, we participated in a super-choir of 6,000 school children at Young Voices and joined together in worship with Chaplain and Reverend Pete Gaskel in Chapel.

No sooner had we dispensed with the ‘B’ word, Megxit was on the scene. But there was no danger of breaking up the BCS family as The Friends brought us all together for a ‘Back to the 90s’ themed Quiz Night which was enjoyed by staff, parents, governors and friends. Open Morning saw record numbers attending to find out more about what Blue Coat has to offer and our pupils did us proud as they toured our visitors around the site. We welcomed pupils from St. Mary’s School for a History Experience Day led by Mr Newman.

This was followed later in the term with our first Multi-Media Experience which saw 21 pupils from The Oratory R.C. School become reporters, cameramen and presenters, under the tutelage of Messrs Nicklin and Hill.

Chaplain and the Chapel Monitors purchased £800 worth of goods with money from chapel donations and were joined by some of Year 2 as they visited Baby Bank Central. The children helped to sort clothes and make up parcels for new mothers who are struggling to meet the financial cost of having a new baby. Charity work continued later in the term with great team efforts from St. Monica’s and St. Margaret’s and Buttons got active for Sports Relief.

Energy levels remained high as pupils took to the stage for the Year 4 Production of the well-known Roald Dahl classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The scenery and special effects went to another level this year and were the perfect backdrop to some star-studded performances. Well done Year 4!

Mr Clements has been proudly sharing the beautiful artwork of his ‘standout artist of the day’ on the @bcscreativearts Twitter feed.

Congratulations to pupils who had their work on show at the Warwick School Exhibition of Young Local Artists, and to Alex Souter (Year 5 winner), Henry de Bono, Jayden Gupta and Kimi Fickert who were highly commended in the Malvern Junior Schools’ Art Exhibition.

In the Spotlight In January, we welcomed Ms Stacey as our new School Librarian. Prior to joining BCS, Ms Stacey worked at the newly opened University of Birmingham School and developed their library from scratch. She also worked for Birmingham Libraries and was involved in the opening of the Library of Birmingham in its fabulous new building.

Q. Did you want to be a librarian from a young age?

A. As a child I remember enjoying role play, usually two main roles: teacher and librarian! The few remaining childhood books at my parents’ house have ‘librey book’ written inside, presumably denoting that they were meant to live in my library!

Q. What is your experience of BCS so far?

A. I love working at BCS! The staff are so welcoming and the pupils really want to learn and have a genuine enthusiasm for reading. It has been great to get stuck straight in with events like the Harry Potter Book Night which showed just how much appetite there is for reading related activities.

Q. Can you recommend some good reads?

A. I love travelling and experiencing different parts of the world but hardly get to do it anymore, so I would really like to be able to fly, or teleport!

Q. What are your hobbies?

A. I started running about this time last year with the Couch to 5k app.

After previously thinking that I would never be a runner I am hooked! I enjoy cooking as well as eating out, I like to draw when I get a chance and absolutely live to travel.

Finally, of course, my number one spare time activity is reading!

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With the Lent term cut short we did not to have the opportunity to wish everyone in person a very Happy Easter but we hope you all keep safe and healthy and that we can welcome you back to BCS very soon.

Q. If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?

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In our final weeks of sport, the U9s were victorious at the RGS Football Tournament thanks to a golden goal scored by Remy Granger in extra time. Also, at RGS, the U9 girls won their Netball Tournament, defeating Winterfold in the final. The U11s made the Aston Villa Tournament final scoring 24 goals and conceding just two.

For Prep I would totally recommend Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

Cosmic is my favourite. It is about a very tall boy who enters a competition to go to a theme park in China which turns out to be a training camp for child astronauts!

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BCS Music-making was showcased at its best with the Young Musician Gala Concert and our worthy winner, Jessie Hong, delighted a packed auditorium. Meanwhile Pre-Prep children demonstrated the breadth of talent lower down the school at their Pre-Prep Concert.

Thank you to all our VMTs for their support and especially in their efforts to continue to offer lessons online wherever possible during the Covid-19 lockdown.

For younger children I also recommend the beautifully illustrated series of books by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts which encourage children to be proud of who they are and to embrace their interests. These include Ada Twist, Scientist and Iggy Peck, Architect.

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On our return from the half-term break, the NSPCC provided our children with a thought-provoking assembly on the subject ‘Speak out, Stay Safe’. Pupils were taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a trusted adult or to Childline.

A. Rob Biddulph who did the World Book Day branding this year has written lovely stories like Blown Away and Sunk which are both in the Pre-Prep library. He is doing daily drawing sessions on Twitter at #drawwithrob.

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Pre-Prep Classroom

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Transition had a special ‘Wow Day’ all about Chinese New Year.

In Mrs Hall’s classroom the children sampled a range of Chinese food including noodles, lychee and prawn crackers. In Mrs Glasgow’s room they decorated Lucky Money red envelopes and in Mrs Shaw’s class they made hanging lanterns. It was a good opportunity for the children to work with different teachers and they had fun playing with new toys in the different classrooms.

Love hearts in the Forest Buttons made love bugs and enjoyed singing ‘Skinny Marinky’, a fun action song with the lyrics “I love you in the morning and in the afternoon, I love you in the evening and underneath the moon!”

They ventured up to Forest School to hang love hearts on the trees with messages to their families and loved ones.

PE Wow Day Both Transition and Reception were treated to a variety of sporting activities in their PE enrichment day. They had the opportunity to use the big sports hall and have coaching from members of the Prep PE Department.

The children displayed super listening skills as they experienced throwing and catching, dribbling a football and scoring goals, following various agility drills and finally, batting a balloon using their hands and tennis rackets.

3… 2… 1… Blast off!

To finish their space topic, Year 2 children went over to the new Prep computing and media suite to have a go at using the green screen. Mr Robinson taught them how to create a short video.

Working in pairs they were able to record their friends exploring space with some really awesome galactic backgrounds!

Big Bird Watch Members of Year 1 were amongst the group of Pre-Prep Eco committee members to visit the RSPB, Sandwell Valley. The children learnt a little more about biodiversity and, in particular, birds. They spent the morning identifying different birds in their natural habitat during a wetland walk and from inside the bird hide.

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The children enjoyed learning how to use binoculars and discovering how to tell different species apart. Back at School, they set up a Big Bird Watch and shared their knowledge with the rest of Pre-Prep.

Prep Classroom In to battle!

Once again, Roman Day at BCS was one to look forward to and judging by the response to the video of our Roman battle on Twitter, this opinion was shared far and wide! Officer Tiberius sorted the girls and boys into two armies and then taught them how to defend themselves using different shield formations.

It was a closely fought battle!

The Year 3 children also learnt how the Romans transported water to cities and towns via aqueducts, as well as how they did their laundry, went to the toilet and kept clean using oils and strigils.

Mexican Art

Mexican tile by Aadya Agarwal

During their Fine Art lessons, Year 4 pupils have been journeying through the annals of Mexico’s vibrant art history; starting from the Meso-American period and finishing up in modern day Mexico - studying art work by the Mixtec peoples, revolutionaries such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and more contemporary artists Rufino Tamayo, Curiot and Jose & Maria Angeles. Pupils have been working hard to develop their drawing skills, focusing primarily on the application of pencils and oil pastels to create their own kaleidoscope patterns and hybrid animals known as ‘alebrijes.’

River Study Year 5 visited Sandwell Nature Reserve to carry out some river experiments. The children were tasked to find all the features of a river. They were very knowledgeable when asked questions about the different parts of a meander, a tributary and erosion. Mr Hulbert was impressed that they had obviously been listening well in their Humanities lessons! Using compasses, the children navigated their way to the river and, despite the higher than normal flow of the river, they were able to conduct some experiments looking at the speed of the river using dog biscuits and stopwatches.

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

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Year 6 were enthralled by a performance of one of Shakespeare’s comedies by the Young Shakespeare Company. Their modern interpretation of this famous work helped Year 6 to gain a better understanding of plot, characters and language. Pupils were selected throughout the afternoon to travel to Athens and visit a magical forest. Our BCS amateur actors delivered their lines in a captivating manner, acting alongside the professional actors. The children found the difficult Shakespearean language much easier to follow and there was much laughter and interaction as all the children were engaged. Well done Year 6!

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Year 4 Production Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Mr. Willy Wonka, the eccentric owner of the greatest chocolate factory in the world, has decided to open the doors of his factory to five lucky children and their parents.

In order to choose who will enter the factory, Mr. Wonka devises a plan to hide five golden tickets beneath the wrappers of his famous chocolate bars. The search for the five golden tickets is fast and furious. Augustus Gloop, a corpulent child whose only hobby is eating, unwraps the first ticket. Veruca Salt, an insufferable brat, receives the next ticket from her father, who had employed his entire factory of peanut shellers to unwrap chocolate bars until they found a ticket. Violet Beauregarde discovers the third ticket while taking a break from setting a world record in gum chewing. The fourth ticket goes to Mike Teavee, who, as his name implies, loves to watch television.

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Charlie Bucket, the unsuspecting hero of the play, defies all odds in claiming the fifth and final ticket. A poor but virtuous boy, Charlie lives in a tiny house with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bucket, and all four of his grandparents. Once a year, on his birthday, Charlie gets one bar of Wonka chocolate, which he savours over many months. But a tremendous stroke of luck befalls Charlie when he spots a 50 pence piece buried in the snow. He decides to use a little of the money to buy himself some chocolate. After inhaling the first bar of chocolate, Charlie decides to buy just one more and within the wrapping finds the fifth golden ticket. It is not a moment too soon: the next day is the date Mr. Wonka has set for his guests to enter the factory!

Amid greedy, spoilt and indulged children our hero of the story showed the true meaning of gratitude as he tours the chocolate factory with his faithful Grandpa Joe. He witnesses unpleasant things happening to the other children until Mr Wonka realises that Charlie is the only boy left and now faces a future filled with exciting chocolate making and never having to starve again!

Thank you to Mrs Jennings, Producer and Director, and Mr Nicklin, Musical Director, for leading the children and making this production such a success. The energy and sparkle that the Year 4 children brought to the stage was simply outstanding.

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Some rather nifty technology and a wonderful vibrant set added to the children’s spectacular performances. Thank you to all the staff working behind the scenes on props, sound and lighting, make up and choreography, set design, AV, catering etc. A great team effort saw this classic tale by Roald Dahl come to life and made the Year 4 Production one to remember!

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Musical Notes This term’s cycle of recitals and concerts was cut short; but not before we had enjoyed a delightful Pre-Prep Concert featuring Fiddlesticks, our Pre-Prep ensemble, our Junior Guitar Quartet, and a charming performance from Music Makers, our music club for Transition pupils.

Soloist Brandon Lim led a challenging 3-part round performed by all Pre-Prep Recorders. They played with a lovely, gentle tone showing great control at such a young age. Rounding off the concert, the Year 2 Choir performed a 3-part arrangement of the Australian folk song ‘Kookaburra’. The enthusiasm, sound and energy in their singing was a pleasure to hear.

In March, we were delighted to welcome Miss Iona Zuiderwijk to be our adjudicator at the BCS Young Musician of the Year 2020 Gala Concert. Miss Zuiderwijk is a nationally renowned Music Festival adjudicator and an international examiner for the Trinity Guildhall School of Music. Skilfully aided by our very own Mrs Happ; Miss Zuiderwijk had the unenviable task of selecting this year’s winner.

Mr Nicklin was extremely proud of all the children and had the pleasure to hear all 141 of them play in the Heats. More pupils than ever before from Year 3 and Year 4 participated and it is a testament to their commitment and hard work that they were so supportive and encouraging of one another. Well-deserved congratulations go to this year’s BCS Young Musician: Jessie Hong in Year 6. Jessie performed Villa-Lobos’ ‘Polichinelle’ with extraordinary technique, assured poise and real finesse to wow our judges.

Year 1 and Year 2 experienced a hands-on Indonesian Gamelan music workshop with expert Mr Hamilton, exploring the amazing sonic world of these traditional Javan and Balinese instruments.

Using their gamels, the children played numbered patterns on metallophones, which did not include the allegedly cursed number 4! Each pupil had a go at striking a large pitched gong, which Indonesians believed sent specific messages to God. A super experience for our Pre-Prep children.

The Year 4 Choir joined a choir of 6,000 school children at the Resorts World Arena to perform in the Young Voices Concert series.

It was a wonderful experience in one of the country’s largest concert venues and the children sang and danced and waved their torches with big smiles on their faces. The children sang along to a huge compilation of songs with the Frightfest Medley getting everyone out of their seats doing the actions to Ghostbusters and the Monster Mash! The night climaxed with a fantastic Queen Medley performed with Tony Hadley, ending with ‘Don’t stop me now’.

A late night but a memorable one for all who took part.

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Year 4’s performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a highlight of the first half of the term. There is a rich seam of talent in this Year 4 cohort and the whole cast, principals, dancers, singers and narrators brought the story to life with aplomb! We thank Mr Nicklin, our talented Director of Music, for his original composition of lyrics and music.

Sadly, the Spring Concert this term was cancelled due to the terrible Coronavirus pandemic. The Chapel Choir had been rehearsing very hard to learn the music for Handel’s ‘Messiah’, our chosen work this year. Despite not being able to perform, we thank them for their hard work and dedication to their rehearsals.

Five more pupils became members of the Birmingham Cathedral Choir this term, which now takes us to eight choristers who are current pupils, along with several former Blue Coat pupils.

Congratulations to Kevin, Luca, Abhav, Jack and Jacob.

BCS Young Musician Finalists

Congratulations Jessie!

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Our BCS Young Musician of the Year 2020

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Sports Round-Up The Lent Term was impacted significantly by the heavy rainfall, which took its toll on our pitches here at BCS. The BCS Sports Department worked hard alongside our Estates and Catering teams to ensure that fixtures and Games afternoons went ahead as planned. The link that the School has made with the University of Birmingham was integral to rearranging several fixtures, using their water-based AstroTurf facility and 3G rugby pitch.

Pre-Prep have enjoyed WOW mornings and our Year 6 Sports Leaders have excelled in organising competitions for Year 1 and Year 2 pupils.

Football The U8s benefited from playing small sided games and playing together as a cohort of 48. In fixtures against Hallfield, the aggregate score for the four BCS teams was 42-1, which certainly bodes well for the future! Early in the term, they played a year up in the U9 Harborne District Tournament hosted at Blue Coat. The boys were unlucky to miss out on the final, due to a 1-0 loss in the semi-final.

Noah Olatayo-Moses plays at the Birmingham City Academy and he has shone this season. Samuel Sapey, Toby Williams, Thomas Hodges and Aryan Paul have also made significant contributions.

What a season for our U9s! Undefeated throughout and a tournament win to go with it. Hosted at RGS The Grange, the boys went through unbeaten and only conceded two goals. We have a superb balance to the team from Jonty Scurlock in goal to Arjun Gill as a lone striker. They are ably backed up by James Longworth’s power from right midfield, Robert Miller on the left, Jackson Bennett’s superb game understanding and Remy Granger as a true all rounder.

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Unfortunately, it’s been a relatively quiet season for the U10s due to cancellations. A real highlight was the U11 hybrid team who won a quarter final cup match against St Peter’s. Five players, playing a year above themselves, performed with strength and guile. Dylan Ram has solidified his position in goal, and Sebastian Stendall has been a superb addition with his work ethic. The boys were lucky enough to play rugby against a touring side from Hampton School, Surrey. An evenly contested match with the touring side coming away with two victories. They presented us with a tie and crested rugby ball. We were very grateful to Bournville Rugby Club, who allowed us to host this fixture at their exceptional facility at Avery Fields.

The U11s began the season playing hockey. Three fixtures and an entry into the U11 IAPS Regional hockey finals demonstrated the opportunity hockey may give to our boys in the future. As for football, the boys successfully reached two competitive finals.

In the first, we lost to a strong RGS side at the Winterfold Matty Thacker Tournament. The second at Villa Park followed a regional win which qualified us for the Tournament Final. The boys played magnificently, scoring 24 and only conceding 2. Sadly the only defeat was in the final so the boys finished as Runners Up. Adam Bashir has led the way with a certain class to his game and ability to score from anywhere! Well done boys.

Netball Although the term was unfortunately cut short, Blue Coat have had a very successful Netball season, with our U8, U9A, U10 A & B teams all having unbeaten seasons.

Our U8s have enjoyed the new format launched by the national governing body ‘BEE Netball’. A smaller, 5-a-side game where players rotate around the different positions, has allowed the girls to learn how to play in both attack and defensive positions and they have all had an opportunity to shoot. The girls have made great progress winning both of their matches against Hallfield and RGS. Aaria Ratti, Sophie Longworth and Anna Newman have all shown an excellent ability to pass and move into space and Tarini Vemuri has been a very accurate shooter.

The U9s have also played ‘BEE Netball’ and every girl has had the opportunity to play in an inter school match. The A team won all 5 of their school matches. A highlight of the term was beating Winterfold in the final of the RGS Tournament, a team we had lost to in the

previous tournament. Susie Tomlinson moves really well in the ‘D’, shoots with accuracy and is eager to win the rebound, and Anya Kapil has made great progress moving up into the A team. A superb season - these girls show great promise for the future!

Sticking to the 7-a-side game, our U10s have developed greater specific positional understanding. Again, all girls have had an opportunity to play in an inter school match and both the As and Bs were unbeaten, defeating teams from Solihull, EHS, Hallfield, Eversfield and King’s Hawford. The girls have worked hard on their timing and ability to drive forward to receive the ball. Claire Happ and Alex Souter are showing a greater understanding in the ‘D’ linking passes and moving into space. Khadija Kamran moves beautifully on the court and has an excellent change of direction and pace to lose her defender.

It was a difficult season for the U11 girls but they have worked hard on their skills and made great progress over the term. This was evident when they played EHS for a second time and managed to hold them to a draw. They enjoyed the opportunity to play numerous games at Warwick and the IAPS Tournament. Delina Elias has been a standout player all season, with her explosive speed and accurate shooting.

Cross Country It has been a difficult season with the enforced cancellation of all four of our inter school competitions. It was particularly disappointing not to be able to hold our Year 3 and 4 House Cross Country (The Harrison Mile). Despite this, the children have stayed committed and worked really hard, turning up every Thursday morning at 7.30 am to train. They have completed a variety of sessions including continuous running, fartlek training, intervals and a relay challenge. Well done to all our runners for their dedication and to Mr Harrison, Miss Crews, Mr Melia and Miss Durrant for their support at this early hour! As Mr Harrison moves on to his new school in July, he can be proud of the running legacy he has left at Blue Coat.

Intra School Matches Each and every child has thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to play in a competitive match through the newly formed Intra School League. The advantage of the Intra School competition is it allows pupils to gain exposure to conditioned games which can motivate and deepen learning. Pupils have the opportunity to be creative in their decision making but also to be able to see the effect of those decisions.

Our four teams: Lightning, Thunder, Hurricane and Storm now also look the part thanks to the new brightly coloured team kits supplied by Early Years Schoolwear. The popularity of these competitions has grown quickly as pupils discuss their new teams, results and tactics with other pupils around the school and in the House. The winning team is determined by adding up the results from both the boys’ and girls’ fixtures in each year group. It has been fiercely competitive this term but the eventual winner was…

Team Thunder!

1st place: Thunder with 84 points 2nd place: Hurricane with 72 points

4th place: Storm with 49 points Every pupil has walked away from this term as a more confident, able and disciplined performer - well done everyone!

The U8, U9, U10 and U11 A & B girls travelled to Edgbaston High School for an annual swimming event. Throughout the evening it was neck and neck, with both schools being top of the leader board at some point, but in the end, it finished with an EHS win. Congratulations to our girls who were fantastic throughout the evening.

House Results

We also competed in the KES and KEHS local Prep Schools’ Gala. This allowed our B and C team swimmers to compete. We came away with a lot of medals and certificates which our children were proud to receive.

Year 6 - St. Philip’s win

After Half-Term, we welcomed Holy Trinity to Blue Coat and what an exciting gala we had! Our U10 and U11 A & B teams competed in a very close and well fought gala. In the end Blue Coat were victorious, with a 5-point win.

Year 3 - St. Margaret’s win

Year 4 - St. Philip’s win

Netball Year 4 - St. Monica’s win Year 5 - St. Monica’s win Year 6 - St. Monica’s win

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(Y3 and Y5 Football and House Swimming did not take place)

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It was a pleasure to once again host the local IAPS qualification round at School. We also competed in the ESSA qualifying round at Bromsgrove School. Unfortunately, both national finals have now been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Football

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From Day 2 of the Lent term, we were back in the pool and racing against Warwick and Bromsgrove in a time trial event for the English Schools and IAPS qualifiers. We recorded some fantastic times and it gave us an excellent base to improve on during the course of the term.

3rd place: Lightning with 66 points

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Swimming

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Mischief managed!

Thank you to our new Librarian, Ms Stacey, who joined Blue Coat in January and organised our inaugural Harry Potter Book Night.

Sixty young witches, wizards and Muggles, plus a house elf and an owl were welcomed to the new Prep library. After being sorted into their Hogwarts Houses they enjoyed magical cakes, stunningly decorated by Nisha from the kitchen team, washed down with a choice of delicious Butterbeer or Skele Gro potion.

Each activity was a chance to collect house points and the overall winners of both the Year 2-3 session and the Year 4-6 event were‌ Ravenclaw! The winners of the most creative costume were both very well deserved - Aashni wore a brilliant Professor Trelawney costume complete with crystal ball whilst the detail in Rayan’s amazing Hedwig costume was truly impressive.

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Wizarding fun and games followed, including a duelling contest, a Gringotts inspired treasure hunt and a chance to free Dobby by giving him a sock. The older pupils also completed a Triwizard quiz.

Well done to everyone who took part and big thanks to all the staff who provided props to dress the library and those who helped run the events. We look forward to running this event again next year and opening it to even more Harry Potter fans.

World Book Day The Big Bad Wolf, Fantastic Mr. and Mrs. Fox, the BFG and Willy Wonka along with his Oompa Loompas arrived in school to help celebrate World Book Day 2020.

The damp weather could not deter the enthusiasm of all the children and staff at Blue Coat, who embraced the day in high spirits, while sharing their love of books and authors together. It was a perfect opportunity to appreciate books and to develop the benefits of reading for pleasure, which stretch throughout an individual’s life.

After joining Prep in the Sports Hall for assembly, the Pre-Prep children took part in a range of fun activities to do with this year’s theme of ‘sharing a story’. This included some children having a story read to them by Ms Stacey in the Prep Library, as well as the Year 2s crossing over to Prep to exchange stories with the children in Year 3. Reception had a fantastic day dressing as their favourite story characters and were very busy writing book reviews, creating their own bookmarks and listening to stories read by some of Year 5.

Weeks of planning and practise culminated in a slick assembly performance from a dedicated band of Year 6 librarians. Harriet represented World Book Day itself by donning a giant book costume; while Jia, Humnah, Jaya and Elsie explained why books and reading are so important. The audience were then treated to a reading and performance of The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers, led

by Holly and Tabitha. Afterwards the young librarians told everyone about the £1 World Book Day token and went through the books that they can choose to spend it on. The girls did a fantastic job and there can be no doubt that their passion for books and reading inspired all the pupils who saw the assembly.

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From Harry Potter to Where’s Wally and everyone else in between, a brilliant time was had by all and it certainly inspired our love of reading even further. Thanks also to Holroyd Howe for supporting the day with a themed lunch menu including an amazing Beatrix Potter inspired salad bar, Cat in the Hat jelly pots and Bruce Bogtrotter’s chocolate delight!

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Charity Check The new year dawned and it was the girls turn to lead their House Charity efforts. St. Monica’s girls were up first, on the rather auspicious date of 31 January 2020, but it wasn’t Brexit that was uppermost in our minds at Blue Coat, it was raising money for Acorns Children’s Hospice!

Acorns look after children and young adults aged 0 to 18 years who need specialist care for life-limiting and life-threatening conditions.

Today there have 55 charity shops around the West Midlands, a significant growth since Acorns first became a registered charity in 1984 and opened its first shop three years later.

For St. Margaret’s girls, disappointingly their Charity Day was not possible due to the turn of events in March. However, the girls in blue had already been busy earning money through various activities.

The House Officers and Mrs Lynn also visited their chosen charity, NICE (National Institute of Conductive Education) to see the work that they do. Fundraiser Annie explained that the charity has to raise over £450,000 each year to keep functioning. NICE supports disabled children and adults suffering from neurological movement disorders.

Our pupils were able to meet some of the children during their lessons at the Red Boots School and chatted to them about their plans for raising money.

The girls delivered a fantastic assembly telling the rest of Prep a little more about their chosen charity. They welcomed fundraiser, Olivia Guglia, to answer some questions and launch their charity day.

A successful ‘Oak Tree Challenge’, involved the girls in bakes sales, odd jobs and many entrepreneurial activities. They grew their fivepound acorns into a mighty oak tree and raised £4,799.

The visit to NICE spurred our House Officers and the rest of St. Margaret’s to do their best in their ‘NICE Challenge’. Their challenges included: sponsored cycles and swims, raffles, ironing, books sales, jumble sales, singing in restaurants in Italy whilst on holiday, popcorn sales, card making, car washing, craft activities, samosa sales and lots of cake sales! So far, an amazing £3,469 has been raised – this is a great achievement considering the girls did not get the chance to run their main charity day.

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We may be four houses but as one school we can achieve a great deal – thank you everyone for your support.

School Leaders’ Charity Day Our School Leaders: Freya, Will, Hari and Maggie have excelled themselves as role models this term. They have stepped up and demonstrated their leadership and organisation skills to help our School Caterers, Holroyd Howe, to organise a charity day for ‘Children of the Mountain’.

‘Children of the Mountain’, is a non-profit organisation that focuses on the poorest areas of Nepal, building primary schools, kindergartens, creative classrooms, and providing teacher training. The hope was to raise enough money to fund an entire classroom.

Ahead of the day the Leaders worked with Catering Manager, Mr Moss, to develop some ‘handy snacks’ to sell on their charity day. They also asked all of the children to come to school wearing orange because this colour is important to the Nepalese as it symbolises ‘transformation’ - promoting happiness, power and nobility. The Leaders gave an informative talk in Chapel and spent a busy day fundraising, including prizes awarded to ‘the best dressed’ in Pre-Prep and Prep.

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Huge congratulations to our ‘Fab Four’ who, along with Holroyd Howe, managed to smash their fundraising target and raise £2,126.01 (after gift aid), against their original target of £1,976.00. This will have a significant impact on children’s lives and Freya, Will, Hari and Maggie would like to thank everyone for their generosity.

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The Friends of The Blue Coat School

In early January there was an excellent turnout for The Friends’ Winter Warmer Coffee Morning at The Plough.

All attendees enjoyed the opportunity to catch up away from the biting cold of the School playground and happily chatted over coffee, pastries and limitless toast!

Neither did the cold weather dampen the enthusiasm of this year’s quizzers! Jules and her brilliant quiz master double act (Willow and Pemble) organised a super evening for the school community. Luke’s catering team put on a fine curry meal for the 80 participants and, as is now tradition, a theme for the night was chosen. This year it was ‘Back to the 90s’ and our teams dressed up and sat at their themed tables representing iconic memorabilia from this final decade of the 20th century. Congratulations to the winning team, the ‘Killer Queens’ who are already swotting up on trivia ready to defend their hard-won title next year!

This term the School has been able to purchase some new play equipment for Pre-Prep with monies raised by The Friends. An outdoor arbour perfect for den building and new Outlast blocks and crates await the children’s return. Funds were also approved for the upgrade of the School’s mobile PA equipment which is regularly used for school events such as sports days and the summer fayre.

It is with regret that at the time of printing, The Friends’ Activity Weekend has been postponed until 2021. It will be a little while longer for our families to wait to enjoy this popular event. In the meantime, we record our appreciation to our dedicated parents who give up so much of their time to organise events for the children and the wider BCS family.

After the February half-term break it was time for the Prep children to come back to school after dark and let their hair down. This year’s Disco was attended by just over 200 children who danced along to DJ Tony’s mix after spending their pocket money on a selection of sweets and glow products. As always, the children enjoyed having some freedom to be with their friends but within a safe and caring environment. Many thanks to Mr Newman, the Prep Staff and the Friends’ Committee who gave up their time to make the Disco so much fun.

Sadly, the Pre-Prep Disco and Whole School Easter Egg Hunt were cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak but those still in School on the final day were able to take away a chocolate egg, thanks to a thoughtful gesture by The Friends.

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The Blue Coat School, Somerset Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B17 0HR S

The Blue Coat School Founded by the Church of England in 1722

Telephone 0121 410 6800 Email info@thebluecoatschool.com Website thebluecoatschool.com The Blue Coat School Birmingham Limited is registered in England, Registration No. 8502615 and is a Registered Charity No. 1152244

Follow us on: @bcsbirmingham @bluecoatbirmingham @bcsbirmingham