Out of the Blue - Spring 2013

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

Festival of Sport

Fantastic Mr Fox

A great weekend of competition

The Lower School production is a hit!

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Head First Welcome to the Spring Term issue of Out of the Blue. For many of the children the term could be summarised in three words: Discos, Exams and Foxes! The PrePrep and Prep Discos were as popular as ever – a big thank you to the Association of Friends for promoting them so energetically. The Exams were taken by a great many of our Year 6 children, who met with signal success again this year – congratulations to you all! The Foxes featured large in the superb Lower School Production of Fantastic Mr Fox, which delighted the performers as much as it did their audiences.

There’s a fourth word, too: Games.

In spite of the rain and snow our sportsmen and women have had great fun this term.

Highlights have included the annual Festival of Sport at Wimbledon High School, in which we shone both individually and as a squad, and the Invitational Cross-Country Tournament at Hallfield, where our U11 team produced an outstandingly convincing triumph.

And, just in case you were wondering, we also spent a good deal of time, in the classroom and outdoors, learning our A, B, C! Alan Browning, Headmaster

Term Round-up With the excesses of the festive period behind us we all returned to school glancing at the Spring Term Calendar thinking - “How on earth can this be fitted into a single term?” Well, we have made it through the long dark mornings and evenings, through the snow and the frost, and have proved that we can sustain an action-packed term whilst achieving great things on the academic front too.

We returned in January to find our new Trim Trail, funded by the Association of Friends, ready and waiting for its first test-drive. The children, from Pre-Prep right through to Year 6, have had a whale of a time testing their strength and agility on the new apparatus, and we are delighted that it has already brought such joy to the school community.

We have been thrilled to team up with a Research Fellow from Birmingham University who has set us up to participate in an exciting project to examine Birmingham’s Urban Heat Island. In time we will be able to access the data from our own temperature sensor and monitor closely our own microclimate, whilst contributing to a national project. These are really exciting times for our geographers.

Our Year 3 Scientists have been eagerly learning about their teeth and healthy eating. Catering Manager, Mr Gladwin, talked about the extensive school menus and about how they are devised, and he set up an ‘Eat your 5-a-day’ challenge. Winners from each class were kindly presented with amazing baskets of fruit!

Congratulations go to Miss Alison Hadley, our Learning Support Co-ordinator, who got married just before Half-Term. Our team of Year 5 reporters caught up with her post-Honeymoon. Do read the full interview on page 3.

The first half of the Spring Term came to its conclusion triumphantly with the spectacular performances of Fantastic Mr Fox, delivered with immense aplomb by the children of Years 3 and 4 under the guidance and direction of Mrs Roberts, Mrs Jennings, Mr Nicklin and their splendid team of assistants. There is a full report on page 8.

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No sooner had we got to grips with the Trim Trail than we were challenged arctically, as a blanket of snow descended on the campus.

A number of events and sports fixtures fell foul of the weather and we were even forced to cancel our January Open Morning. The children of Year 4 had no such postponement, however, as they received visits from both the Lego Man and the Past President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. The children of Reception meanwhile celebrated the start of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Snake, with a lively dragon dance.

In the Spotlight Recently returned from her honeymoon, our roving reporters Natalie Shah (5M), Chloe Bissell (5M) and Charlotte Poole (5C) caught up with Mrs Taylor (née Hadley) to find out a little bit more about the lady in Room 11.

Q. Who is your favourite author and why?

A. Julia Donaldson, because she manages to take a great story and turn it into a picture book. My favourite one is ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’.

The Easter services in Prep and Pre-Prep were lovely occasions that helped us to look forward to a well deserved holiday, to Easter eggs, and, dare we say it, to some lovely Spring sunshine!

Happy Easter to everyone from us all and we look forward to a busy but rewarding Summer Term. See you on Wednesday 17 April.

A. I chose the saxophone because it looked really cool.

Q. If you hosted a dinner party for four guests, alive or dead, who would you choose and why?

A. Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman from the TV programme Pointless, because they are funny together, Jamie Oliver because he could help with the cooking and my new husband, Robin.

Q. Where did you go on your honeymoon?

A. Brazil and Argentina. We went to Rio de Janeiro for the Carnival, Iguassu Falls and the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires.

Q. Who is your favourite music artist?

A. Ellie Goulding. I really like her new album ‘Halcyon’ and I also like The Wonder Stuff.

Q. What is your favourite book?

A. ‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’ by Judith Kerr.

Q. What is your favourite colour?

A. Green Q. Do you prefer chocolate or sweets?

A. Chocolate, especially Marks and Spencer’s giant chocolate buttons.

Q. What is your idea of a dream holiday?

A. Driving around California in a big American convertible, ending up in my favourite theme park, Disneyland.

Q. What is your favourite Quality Street?

A. The octagonal Orange Crunch.

Q. Which sport do you like the most?

A. Swimming, to relax rather than for competition.

Q. Who is your favourite athlete?

A. I really like the Brownlee brothers because they manage to make watching the triathlon interesting!

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The Spring Term is traditionally an anxious one for our Year 6 children as they sit examinations and then await their results. This year’s cohort has once again realised some fantastic results, and we are delighted with their achievements in both Independent and Grammar School exams.

Q. Why did you choose the saxophone?

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A tournament of a different kind was witnessed in the Sports Hall with the PE Department’s superb ‘Gladiator Wipeout’! Dressed in the most outlandish garb, members of the Department and a number of other willing staff fought with great gusto and impeccable team spirit in aid of Mrs Elphinston’s forthcoming work on behalf of Operation Christmas Child.

A. Yes, I play the alto saxophone, but I have never had a formal lesson.

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There’s been plenty happening on the sporting front, too. You will find a full write-up of the term on page 6, but a mention should be made here of the triumphant Blue Coat squad at the Invitational Athletics Competition at Hallfield and the Festival of Sport for the girls, this year held at Wimbledon High School. Both produced some outstanding performances.

Q. Do you play a musical instrument?

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We have enjoyed many wonderful musical performances this term.

The series of morning recitals has continued with Years 1, 2, 3 and 5 turning out in force to hear some of their number play solos. There were a good many fine performances, showing much promise for the future. The Chapel Choir has continued to lead the Chapel worship for us and they combined with the Choral Society towards the end of term to present a fine evening of choral music, the central work being Fauré’s Requiem. This was a memorable evening for audience and performers alike.

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Classroom Connection Pre-Prep Reception - Reach for the Stars Reception children have been exploring space through stories, creative work and role play. They have designed rockets, created and named new galaxies and imagined aliens. Maybe they will be on their way to Mars one day!

Year 1 - History of The Blue Coat School In History lessons, the children in Year 1 have been finding out about the history of The Blue Coat School. They studied photographs, plans and diary entries to find out what life was like at the school many years ago. It was interesting to study photographs of the children at work, and think how fortunate we are today to have small class sizes and bright classrooms with interactive whiteboards. The children were able to try on the uniform that had been worn by The Blue Coat School pupils over 100 years ago.

Year 2 and 3 - Samba Drumming Day The Year 2 and Year 3 children had a very exciting day when Ed came to inspire our Samba drumming skills at Blue Coat! The children were introduced to some very intricate rhythms using Djembe Drums, Maracas and Agogo Bells.

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Each form group had their own special masterclass with Ed during the day. A few children were then chosen to perform in a concert at the end of the day. We are very grateful to Ed for such a wonderful day and congratulations to the children, for demonstrating such excellent rhythmic skills!

Year 2 - Great Fire of London This term Year 2 had a fun-packed learning experience based on their History topic related to ‘The Great Fire of London’. The children experienced lots of different activities and made various common items from the past including candles, bread and herbal smelling salts. They could also visit a surgeon! After a break the children entered the School Hall where they were greeted with smoke and darkness to get the feeling of the streets of London when the fire started. They then looked at a large canvas map and plotted the route the fire may have taken.

Prep Year 5 - Visit to Singer’s Hill Synagogue In our very first week back at school Year 5 pupils visited the Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Birmingham city centre. Orthodox Jewish worship has continued there since it was built in 1856. First we visited the Children’s Synagogue, where we were introduced to what happens in a synagogue and discovered its functions as a House of Gathering for festivals and as a school, as well as a place of worship.

Year 4 - Lego Day and Architect Visit On 16th January we enjoyed our Lego Day with Mr Garside, who came into school with 100,000 pieces of Lego! We had to make two villages with a river in between which were joined with a walkway, road or train bridge. I made a rail bridge, a railway station and two houses.

We then made electrical circuits and

Next we explored the main synagogue. We found the Star of David and the sentence in Hebrew which means “Know whom you are standing in front of”. This appears over the Ark where the Torah scrolls are kept. We all gasped in wonder as the ark was opened to reveal the parchment Torah scrolls with their velvet covers, silver crowns, breastplates and pointers (yad).

put lights on them and made wind farms, powered by motors.

In the afternoon we met Ruth Reid, the Architect, and used an app on the iPad called Bridge Constructor. We worked in groups to design and make a bridge. Ours was completed with just five minutes to spare. Phew - what a relief!

Sam Howells, 4H Year 5 - Victorian Afternoon Emily Bateman, the Runaway Apprentice, made her annual visit to Blue Coat on the afternoon of January 29th. Year 5 gathered in the Hall to meet her and be transported back to the early 19th century, to the dark and dismal days when children aged 9 and younger were expected to work a 12-hour shift in the noisy, dangerous textile mills of Victorian Britain. Dressed in aprons, mob caps and shawls, or flat caps, neckerchiefs and waistcoats, we instantly became part

of a moving, dramatic reconstruction of Emily’s life, from workhouse to cotton and silk mills and, finally, to a new life in America. Many children were given particular roles to play, such as Queen Victoria, factory owners, apprentice children and the aptly named ‘Knockerup,’ but the highlight of the afternoon was, surely, the march around the playground by nearly 80 chanting children to campaign for a “Twelve hour day, no less pay!”

Year 6 - Geography Field Trip The Year 6 Geography field trip of Birmingham began with an introduction to the part of the city where our school stood and then learning about important sites such as Edgbaston Cricket Ground and the Nature Centre.

Being a city of great industry around 50 years ago and stretching back to the 1700s, our trip emphasised the historical importance of Birmingham as ‘The Second City’ and ‘A City of 1000 Trades’. After the coach tour we continued our visit on foot, first through to the canal at Brindley Place, then through the ICC, an amazing modern building, and out near the REP theatre and the spectacular new library. We then saw the statue of William Murdoch, Matthew Boulton and James Watt, and were told some fascinating things about them and their great contribution to the industrial life of the city.

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George Morris and Shreyas Tiwari, 6G

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Sports Highlights – Spring 2013 It has been a frustrating term for staff and pupils alike as the weather has put paid to a large number of inter-school fixtures and outdoor games sessions. For the boys the Year 4s seem to have come off the best as they have completed four soccer matches against other schools.

The girls have suffered similarly from lack of practice outdoors but have managed to

achieve victories in netball at all age groups in at least one match. Highlights for the girls were The Festival of Sport for Year 5 and 6 and the IAPS Regional Netball Tournament for Year 6.

The improved weather after Half-Term meant that Hallfield School had near-perfect conditions for their annual Cross-Country Meeting. Once again our U11s performed extremely well. Charlie Iliff gained an impressive 1st place finish, whilst Kodie Murphy obtained 3rd place. These two boys were ably supported by Rory Elliott, Sachin Subramonian and Dylan Poole.

Consequently, the U11 team trophy was retained for another year.

The Years 5 and 6 swimming teams have enjoyed great success at swimming galas over the last two terms, winning over 90% of them.

Our most recent gala, at Wimbledon, proved to be the most exciting ever, with our girls swimming for their lives and gaining a 2nd (A team) and a 1st (B team) with an overall joint first. Years 3 and 4 have also enjoyed swimming success, coming second against formidable opponents at Bromsgrove and gaining valuable experience, ready for when we take them on next year.

Festival of Sport at Wimbledon High School This year’s Festival of Sport took place in London. Other schools competing against us were the hosts Wimbledon High, Sutton and Central Newcastle High Schools. All our girls found the experience enjoyable and carried away fond memories of good times shared with new friends.

The first competition on Saturday was Gymnastics, and the Blue Coat girls excelled themselves to take team first. Francesca Ward won individual gold medals on both floor and vault, Kaela Ferguson took the silver on floor and Maddie Williams won bronze in the combined floor and vault. Competition in the swimming gala was fierce, but our swimmers pulled out all the stops with impressive wins by Maya Graves, Francesca Ward, Nina Piotrowska and Emily Geoghegan.

In the final reckoning Blue Coat were equal to Wimbledon on points and a tie was declared.

The following day saw the arrival of eight teams for a netball and hockey tournament. Unsure of what standard to expect, our Blue Coat Belles were determined to do their best. Competition was very fierce, and in spite of great commitment and determination both A and B teams lost to Wimbledon and Sutton but managed to beat Central Newcastle, placing us 3rd overall. In the final competition of the weekend our hockey players fought extremely hard. The As had a convincing 4-0 victory against Sutton, and 1-0 against Newcastle, but fell short in their first match against Wimbledon, losing 1-0. The Bs beat Wimbledon and Sutton but lost by an unfortunate breakaway goal against Newcastle, resulting in a combined score of 14 points, just behind Wimbledon’s 16.

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To summarise, Blue Coat were placed 1st in gymnastics, 1st in swimming, 2nd in hockey and 3rd in netball. All the girls gained great experience from competing in this fabulous weekend of sport. They enjoyed the hospitality of new friends and their host families and were an absolute credit to the school!

Charity Check

Miss Patel in full flight

This term’s charity activities began with the opening of a number of thank you letters from our charity partners expressing their heartfelt thanks for our support through donations given earlier in the academic year.

We are glad to report that not even the snow stopped this term’s energetic fund raising. The Three Amigos from 4H, Erin Quinn, Kajol Sohal and Daya Talwar organized a highly successful art competition, Get Drawing for Kyrgyzstan, with around 60 entries.

Miss Ward and Mrs Micklethwaite in action Meanwhile, 5R have been busy in the kitchen. They hosted a delicious cake sale for the Year 5 children, raising £87 towards Mrs Elphinston’s trip. The remarkable family team effort of Ms Frostick and her daughter Beatrice Beardmore (5R) resulted in the baking of a most magnificent chocolate cake.

Over one hundred eager competitors paid to guess the weight. Aryan Parekh made a fabulous and highly accurate guess of 3.8kg and so became the proud owner of the cake.

Lucky Aryan: enjoy! £75 was raised.

Congratulations to the art competition winners

The PE staff ‘Gladiator Wipeout’ was a fundraising event in a league of its own!

The pictures say it all! It was fun, it was exciting, it was whacky and wild! Thank you to Mrs Nordan for masterminding it and to all the competitors for their enthusiastic participation.

Red Nose Day drew this term’s charity activities to a close.

Everyone enjoyed abandoning school uniform in favour of home clothes and red noses. The staff Red Nose Day sponge cake competition produced some very interesting results indeed – as did the Harlem Shake video!

Pre-Prep children were delighted to have a visit from a guide dog and trainer. The money raised by the children will go towards training a much-needed guide dog.

We’d like to thank the whole school family for eagerly, enthusiastically and generously throwing themselves into all our fundraising activities this term.

The money raised was spent on toys to send with Mrs Elphinston to Kyrgyzstan. All of the artwork entries will also make the 3,400 mile journey east packed carefully in Mrs Elphinston’s suitcase.

World Book Day World Book Day, an international celebration of reading, books and authors, took place across the globe on Thursday 7th March.

Here in Harborne we embraced the spirit and participated in true Blue Coat style!

In the week leading up to the big day Travelling Book Fairs were held in both Pre-Prep and Prep to encourage the children’s interest in books.

broomstick properly! And at break and lunch time the children were able to visit the Library to participate in puzzles, quizzes and games, a book-themed menu and Desert Island Books.

Everyone had a fabulous time appreciating literature and celebrating the joy of reading!

On World Book Day itself, there was an air of excitement in PrePrep as staff and children donned spectacular outfits ranging from The Gruffalo to James Bond! Favourite stories, nursery rhymes and poems were shared throughout the day, and activities linked to books were completed enthusiastically. A dozen Year 6 children shared in the fun by joining the Pre-Prep children in their classes to read stories and answer questions about their favourite books.

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Meanwhile… what magic did the Prep staff have up their sleeves?

Sorting Hats, owls, cats and even a Firebolt appeared as Hogwarts teachers were seen striding around the campus, resplendent in their academic gowns and mortar boards. Each and every miscreant owl was suitably berated – and woe betide any pupil who failed to park a

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Fantastic Mr Fox On a hill above a valley there was a wood. In the wood there was a huge tree. Under the tree there was a hole. In the hole there lived Mr Fox, Mrs Fox and six small foxes...

A great tale of farmer versus vermin turned on its head by Roald Dahl; this was the choice for the Lower School Musical this year – and a fantastic choice it was too! All the children of Years 3 and 4 took to the stage on two sell-out nights before half term to put on a wonderful show of acting, dancing and singing, and a little bit of digging.

Year 4 children made up the main characters, from children, moles, weasels and foxes to rats, badgers, rabbits, villagers and narrators. All enjoyed playing their part, learning their lines exceedingly well and delivering them with great enthusiasm and skill.

We haven’t mentioned the farmers: Boggis, Bunce and Bean, a terrible trio, who were played marvellously, not least when sporting leather jackets and inflatable guitars and singing along to their rock number. And their skill with a digger made them the envy of all wannabe-builders.

The parts of chickens, ducks and geese were played by Year 3, who danced their way round the stage, shaking their tail feathers, to the samba or a barn dance – but if you ask them to Foxtrot, they will not!

The Cider Song also kept some Year 3 children amused, although badgers are the only animals to drink it three times a day!

Year 3 boys Altogether, much fun was had both in rehearsals and during the show week. Though the children, and staff, were exhausted by the end, we thought it was fantastic and would do it all again – if only those farmers were not still waiting by the hole...

Mr and Mrs Fox

Boggis, Bunce and Bean plotting another attack

Key Dates for Summer Term 2013 Term begins at 8.30am Wednesday 17 April Bank Holiday Monday 6 May

Open Morning Saturday 11 May 10.00am - 12.30pm Please arrive by 11.45am Half-Term holiday begins Monday 27 May

Second half of term begins Monday 3 June Term ends Wednesday 10 July

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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

Fax 0121 454 7757

Email info@thebluecoatschool.com Website www.thebluecoatschool.com The Blue Coat School is a registered charity No. 528805