Bromsgrovian REGI
BROMSGROVE SCHOOL
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m i c ha e l m a s 2 0 1 2 I s s u e 3
A word from the Headmaster For the first time in many years, the Senior School staff and pupil body gathered under one roof for an event. Frankly, it was a moving sight for which I have waited a long time, since neither Routh nor the Memorial Chapel have come close to accommodating the Senior School for nearly a decade. Over one thousand people sat in the
new Arena to listen to and take part in the Senior House Song competition. Anybody fearing that Bromsgrove’s recent, rapid expansion might somehow dilute the essence of this School need only have witnessed this wonderful occasion to know that the spirit is stronger than ever. I suspect the collector of African proverbs, Askhari Johnson Hodari, has not appeared in
many Independent School newsletters, so let’s put that right: “If everyone helps to hold up the sky, then one person does not become tired.” CHRIS EDWARDS Headmaster
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European Languages Day Senior School pupils joined in with Prep and Pre-Prep pupils to celebrate European Languages Day. This year the date coincided with a visit by our German exchange school. Pupils from the Hermannswerder Gymnasium in Potsdam, Germany, visited Prep School where they were interviewed by Year 8 pupils. Meanwhile, younger Prep pupils visited the European CafĂŠ set up in Maple Hall where they enjoyed a snack of croissants and hot chocolate - which of course they had to ask for in French or Spanish. Mr Clarkson, one of our Prep parents, was kind enough to fly back from Luxembourg to talk with the younger pupils about how important languages are in the wider world. Sixth Formers visited Pre-Prep where the Year 2 children participated in a range of activities prepared by the Senior School students, giving them an exciting introduction to both German and French. They all enjoyed a French brunch followed by a European Feast at lunchtime.
Model UN Eight Upper Sixth formers recently represented Ethiopia and Greece in their first ever Model United Nations’ conference. The day began early and upon arrival at the host school, Reigate Grammar, the delegates joined committees and lobbied their pre-prepared resolutions, after which debating began on several topics including Primary Education, Waterborne Disease and Bringing War Criminals to Justice. They will now go immediately into using this experience to help prepare for the next conference where five more delegates will represent Azerbaijan.
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CCF There is an old army phrase that states “if it ain’t raining it ain’t training”. This year’s CCF Field Day at Swynnerton had just enough of the former to make the latter a memorable rite of passage for our new recruits. It was hard to believe that they were only issued uniforms three weeks before the exercise as they enthusiastically rose to all manner of challenges from live firing to dealing with casualties, recovering stores from minefields; repairing armoured cars; and putting on their war faces to fight through an enemy position. The great success of the day was in no small part due to the professionalism shown by the NCOs and senior cadets who planned and executed their own stands, and marshalled the recruits between tasks.
Geographers Investigate A joint group of over 50 AS and IBDP Lower Sixth Geography pupils travelled to Betws-Y-Coed in North Wales. At Llanrwst pupils studied flood management strategies in the Conwy valley. The AS pupils spent Saturday in the Upper Conwy Valley where they
completed an investigation into river characteristics in the upper course of the river. The IBDP students travelled to the Nant Peris Valley where they carried out data collection for their Internal Assessment on how the fluvial characteristics of a river change with
distance from the source. The following day pupils investigated the formation of sand dunes in Harlech and later in Criccieth they looked at coastal management strategies.
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Foremarke Hall Invitational Tournament The U13 girls’ hockey team played in the Foremarke Tournament. In the pool matches they finished in second place and went into a semifinal against Denstone A team. After 5 minutes golden goal extra time the match went to penalty flicks to decide the match, where Claudia Moberley and Megan Longden scored to beat Denstone by 2-1. In the final against Beeston Hockey Club both sides attacked well but it was Elouise Brookes who scored the only goal of the match giving Bromsgrove the trophy.
ESSA First Round Bromsgrove School hosted the first round of the English Schools’ Athletics Association cross country cup. In the Prep girls’ race Abi Saker set the pace from the front and kept her lead all the way round the course to win comfortably. Not far behind was Ellie Childs coming in 2nd place. Mollie Trow fought hard to secure 4th place and Niamh Donovan was a very close 5th. The two other team members, Claudia
Moberley and Charlotte Campbell, also finished sufficiently highly placed to give the girls’ team first position in the county. In the Prep boys’ competition all six boys ran exceptionally well to finish in the top ten, Charlie Sapwell 2nd, Joe Houlcroft 4th, Nathan Boothroyd 5th, Sergey Marchenko 6th, Morgan Hammond 7th and Harry Liversidge 10th.
In the Senior School races both the girls’ and boys’ teams finished 2nd and qualified for the Midlands’ Finals in November.
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Inter-House Singing Competition The Inter-House Song Competition was held for the first time in the Arena. It may have lost some of the atmosphere but the acoustics were good and everyone could be ‘housed’ under one roof. It was almost like a concert performance. Mr Fletcher – Director of Solihull Choral Society and organist to the University of
Riding Georgina and Henrietta HorselyGubbins continue to take the riding world by storm. They recently competed in the National Schools Equestrian Association qualifier at Hartpury College. Both ponies produced great clear rounds and Mr Binks and Henrietta were placed 5th out of 40. Both the girls were proud to be riding in our School colours.
Birmingham - adjudicated an enthralling hour or so of 60s Number 1 hits and wittily summed up proceedings at the end. We enjoyed ‘Hey Jude’ Housman Hall, ‘Surfin’ USA’ Lyttelton, ‘Walking Back to Happiness’ Mary Windsor, ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ Lupton, ‘Let’s Come Together’ Elmshurst, ‘I’m a Believer’
Thomas Cookes, ‘Sugar Sugar’ School, ‘Lady Madonna’ Walters, ‘All you Need is Love’ Hazeldene, ‘Let’s Twist Again’ Wendron-Gordon and ‘Hit the Road Jack’ Oakley. Congratulatoins to Hazeldene (conducted by Charlotte Collie) and Walters (led by Oscar Barber-Fray) who jointly won the competition.
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Lower Fourth Walk Malvern
The Lower Fourths headed for the Malvern Hills for the annual walk over one of England’s loveliest ranges of hills. Our 153 pupils were enthusiastic, energetic and the vast majority displayed great determination to fulfil the objectives. The day comprised a range of challenges - effective team work, co-operation, communication skills, leadership and initiative.
Pumpkin Fun Mr Helmore arrived in Elmshurst House one evening laden with pumpkins and carving kits for an in-House pumpkin carving competition. Miss Hardy, from Mary Windsor, arrived to judge the tough competition, and after much scrutinising she decided it a joint win between Oscar, Osan and Samir Gurung (5th Form) and Anarag and Ben W (5th Form). Great fun was had by all in the House.
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Baking Sales A number of Houses in the Senior School held cake sales before half term to raise money for a variety of charities. Hazeldene put on a splendid spread in the Old Chapel and raised over £400 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Elmshurst held a great bake off which was judged by an old Elmshurst pupil - the boys made some lovely cakes and had fun raising money.
Little Red Riding Hood Year 1 have been very busy working on the theme of Little Red Riding Hood for their topic “Into the Woods”. They designed a “Get Well” card for Grandma using a computer programme, made a fruits of the forest crumble dish to put into Little Red Riding Hood’s basket for Grandma and as a finale, performed a sound story with words and actions for the other classes.
War Time Year 2 spent a day with the ‘History Man’ who transported them back to the dark and dangerous days of World War Two. They continued their learning Journey ‘We’ll Meet Again’ by handling genuine artefacts, joining the Home Guard, winding up the airraid siren, using a stirrup pump and cracking wartime codes.
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Blackwell Visit Year 4 children spent a very enjoyable day at Blackwell Adventure. They all had a chance to practise their archery and orienteering skills, ready to apply to become one of Robin’s Merry Men later
in the term. Many also went up into the trees to have a go at the ‘Tree Trek’ obstacle course and those who were brave enough zipped down the zip wire, some even upside down.
Enchanted Pupils in Years 3 and 4 drummed and danced ‘Into the Woods’ all day with inspirational music and songs from Music Man Ollie Heath. The characters from The Enchanted Wood and Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men featured within the singing and drumming and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The grand finale closed the day, with each year group teaching the others their musical chants and songs with accompaniments.
Music Workshop Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had a fantastic music workshop with Music Man Ollie Heath to enhance their creative curriculum topics. Reception and Year 1 used instruments and body percussion to accompany the ‘Gruffalo’ story. Year 2 used rhythms and percussion to reinforce the importance of tolerance, friendship and equality linked to their World War Two topic.
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U13 Rugby Tour Thirty seven boys from the U13 rugby squads travelled to Cardiff on a three day tour. In an action packed weekend, the boys kicked off the tour by visiting the Liberty Stadium, Swansea, to watch The Ospreys vs Benetton Treviso, Italy in a Heineken Cup match. On the Saturday they played matches against Cowbridge Rugby Club. The A team lost to a strong home side with a final score of 10-29. The combined B and C team faced the Cowbridge U12As, a very strong team, who ran out comfortable winners. The following day both teams played Dinas Powys Rugby Club. First up were the B/C team and despite going 0-10 behind early on, the boys regrouped and ran out 36-20 winners in the end with Dominic Gardner scoring a hat trick of tries. The A team followed and, cheered on by their team mates and a large group of parents, the boys won 62-0.
U15 Ireland Rugby Tour The U15 squad travelled to Ireland for their tour. Starting in Dublin, their first match was against Castleknock. This was a closely fought match but Bromsgrove triumphed in the end with a 12-10 win. The next day the team enjoyed a day without a match to play themselves but watched the Heineken Cup tie between Munster and Edinburgh at Thomond Park. The atmosphere was great and everyone was thrilled as Munster beat Edinburgh 33-0. The final day saw the squad playing against Blackrock College, who hadn’t lost a game in three years. The enthusiastic crowd of 700 supporters spurred both teams to play their best and after a tough first half our team took the lead and won 19-6.
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Bromsgrovians Thames River Dinner Cruise Sixty Old Bromsgrovians and friends cruised along the River Thames on Saturday 13th October. The weather wasn’t the greatest but good enough for a few brave souls to go up on deck from time to time to better see the wonderful sights of London. The food was good, the atmosphere was wonderful and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
OB Christmas Event at The Chameleon Please make a note in your diary that the Bromsgrovian Club will be having a Christmas Event at The Chameleon in Birmingham on Thursday, 13th December, 2012. Information will be sent out by the end of next week.
OB Visit Brian Davies (Walters, 85–90) and his wife, Amanda, visited the School during a visit from their home in New Zealand. Brian was particularly impressed with the new sports facilities and had fun reminiscing about his time at Cobham and a short period when he was a boarder in Wendron-Gordon before he became a day boy in Walters. Brian is interested in connecting with other OBs living in New Zealand, please email Jenny Bossard (jbossard@bromsgroveschool.co.uk) if you would like to make contact with him. All photos featured on the Bromsgrovian pages, including individual’s names and years, can be found on the Bromsgrovian Facebook site.
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Gothenburg Study Lucy Hayward (Hz 94-04) has just started medical school at the University of Gothenburg. After studying languages at Cambridge Lucy decided she really wanted to study medicine but that she also wanted to study abroad. Having made some links in Sweden through her first degree, she moved to Gothenburg to learn the language. She is delighted to have been accepted into the medical school and would recommend studying overseas to any current pupils who may be considering this.
Wedding
Lucy’s brother Tom (Walters, 96-07) is also studying abroad, doing a Masters degree in Physics at Munich.
Sixteen OBs attended Tom Robinson’s (Lu 94-99) wedding to Nora which was held on Shelter Island in the Hamptons, New York.
Gauntlet Award 2012 Sarah Morris (TC 05 – 12), has returned from her trip to Madagascar which was sponsored by the Bromsgrovian Club through the Gauntlet Award. Sarah travelled to Madagascar for a month where she had an exciting, as well as rewarding, time. Part of her time there was spent assisting in improving a primary school in Ivato. The group that Sarah was in had the task of helping to dig foundations for a new classroom, haul bricks and clear rubble, clear the grounds of litter and repaint an old classroom, whilst the local workmen built the new classroom. If any current pupils or recent leavers want to find out more about the Gauntlet Award please contact Jenny Bossard at the School.
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Charlie Clemmow’s Aunt
Charlie Clemmow (Hz 97-04) is currently starring in Charley’s Aunt offWest End. Charlie plays the role of Ela and the cast includes Jane Asher and Matthew Horne. Charley’s Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances. The play runs until 10th November at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark Street.
Book for Sale Offa’s Dyke Path - 17 circular walks from Welshpool to Hay-on-Wye This is a delightful book, written by OB Jeff Lomax (W 49-54), covering the finest stretches of Offa’s Dyke as well as numerous castle and other remains from many periods of history. The walks vary from 5 -10 miles with many possibilities for shortening or combining walks. Small towns such as Knighton and Kington alternate with picturesque villages and fine stretches of open country. Jeff, who is a telephone campaign donor, has only 80 copies of his book left and is donating the entire sale proceeds to support bursaries at Bromsgrove. At 144 pages long, the book would make a lovely Christmas present. The recommended retail price is £5.99, but we are selling it for £4 (plus postage and package).
Annual OB Golf Society School Match The annual OB Golf Society match against the school took place in October. The match was halved 2-2 so the OBs retain the Webb Cavill Trophy.
Forthcoming Events 2012 - 2013 NOVEMBER 2012 Sunday 4th Tuesday 6th Saturday 10th Sunday 11th Thursday 15th Friday 16th Monday 19th Tuesday 20th Tuesday 20th Tuesday 20th Thursday 22nd Tuesday 27th Tuesday 27th Wednesday 28th Thursday 29th Friday 30th
DECEMBER 2012 Saturday 1st Sunday 2nd Tuesday 4th Tuesday 4th Thursday 6th Tuesday 11th Thursday 13th Thursday 13th Friday 14th Friday 14th
JANUARY 2013
Tuesday 8th Wednesday 23rd Thursday 24th Friday 25th Saturday 26th Tuesday 29th
FEBRUARY 2013
Friday 1st Wednesday 6th Thursday 7th Wednesday 27th Thursday 28th
MARCH 2013
Friday 1st Tuesday 5th Sunday 17th Thursday 21st Friday 22nd Monday 25th
Prep School Firework display 5.00pm Prep School Remembrance Service 8.30am Sixth Form Open Day Remembrance Day School Services 9.55am and 10.55am Prep School House Singing Competition, Routh Hall 8.40am Bromsgrove’s Got Talent, Drama Studio, 7.30pm 13+ Sports Scholarship Trials 16+ Sports Scholarship Trials IB Information Evening for 5th Form Parents, Routh Hall 7.30pm The Fourth Annual Foundation Lecture, RAF Club London 7.30pm Next Step Conference (L6 parents), LRC 7.30pm Prep School Year 4 production ‘Hoodwinked’, Cobham Hall 6.00pm School Production ‘Cats’, The Artrix Theatre 7.00pm-10.30pm School Production, ‘Cats’, The Artrix Theatre 7.00pm-10.30pm School Production, ‘Cats’, The Artrix Theatre 7.00pm-10.30pm Prep School Christmas Concert, Cobham Hall 7.00pm
Prep School Christmas Fair, Cobham Hall 12.30 - 3.00pm Advent Carol Service 5.30pm Pre-Prep Reception Nativity, School Hall 9.15am CCF Recruits Passing Out Parade Pre-Prep Reception Nativity, School Hall 9.15am Pre-Prep Christmas Service, Chapel 2.15pm OB Chirstmas Event at The Chameleon, Birmingham Prep School Junior Carol Service, Chapel 2.45 - 3.45pm Prep School Senior Carol Service, Chapel 12.00 - 1.00pm Senior School Carol Services
Choral Society Rehearsals commence Routh Hall 6.00pm Music Scholarship Auditions Music Scholarship Auditions Music Scholarship Auditions Sixth Form Courses Information morning Routh Hall 9.00am 16+ Scholarship Exams and Interviews
13+ Scholarship Interviews Year 8 drama production, Cobham Hall 7.00pm Year 8 drama production, Cobham Hall 7.00pm Chamber Choir Sings Choral Evensong at the Royal Chapel Windsor Fourth Form drama production ‘Witches’ Drama Studio 7.30pm
Fourth Form drama production ‘Witches’ Drama Studio 7.30pm Pop and Jazz Routh Hall 7.30pm Mothering Sunday Family Service Chapel Year 6 drama production, Cobham Hall 7.00pm Year 6 drama production, Cobham Hall 7.00pm Rock of the Third Cobham Hall 4.45pm