Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School Inspiration and Excellence
Simply outstanding! It has been a pleasure to welcome all the new members of the Vesey family: staff, families and, of course, our students. As you can see from this newsletter the mood in school is buoyant. Following record-breaking results, we were visited by Ofsted in October. They declared us to be Outstanding in all categories: ‘A high performing school where the students make rapid progress and reach exceptionally high standards.’ We were delighted that the Inspectors put great emphasis on the superb behaviour of our students, the passion of our teachers and our profound commitment to developing the whole person, whether it be as a ‘pioneer in developing students’ understanding of mental health issues’ or our ‘exceptionally wide variety of enrichment activities’. To read in full please visit: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/137988
Headteacher
BVGS enters TOP 25! 2014 was another record-breaking year for BVGS. A level students, as a collective, performed very well indeed, with an amazing 75% of students beginning University this autumn heading off to Russell Group and Oxbridge universities. 85% of all grades at A level were awarded at A*-B, and 54% at A*/A, both new school records, putting us as the 24th best state school in the country! There was particular delight in the Ammar family with Omer and Usman bagging three A* grades and five As between them. Top performers included Andy Quach, one of 5 successful Oxbridge candidates) with an amazing 5 A*s to take him to Cambridge to read Economics. Four other students attained three A*s apiece: Rebecca Grundmann, Andrew Hyslop, Joshua Smith and Christopher Winters. In total, 44 students this year gained three A grades or better – a big well done to them – and all our students, who worked hard and did their best throughout their time with us. We also celebrated outstanding GCSE results yet again. 66% of all grades were at A*/A. Just under two-thirds of students attained six or more A*/A grades. Indeed, the percentage of grades awarded A* was up again to a record 30% across the school. There were, as usual, some excellent individual performances with ten students gaining an amazing eight A*s or better. Well done to Ahsan Abdullah, Taranjit Dhillon, Dominic Burden, Niall Keating, Saravanan Rajakumaran, Hamza Saleem, Daniel Scott, Sachin Seneviratne, Adam Smith and Thomas Young. As well as attaining ten A* grades, Thomas, along with two other students, Sunny Aujla and Akhilesh Madasamy, attained full marks in GCSE Geography. Performance in Languages was particularly encouraging with just under 70% of all grades in French, German, Chinese, Urdu and Spanish being awarded A* or A. There was also success for younger boys in Languages with Ridouan Asselman from Year 8 gaining A* in French and Jon Jon Tian and Akshay Khanna from Year 9 and 10 gaining A*s in Chinese and Italian respectively. We were delighted by the news in August that the Birmingham Mail ranked our GCSE results and progress in their league table of state schools as the best for boys in Birmingham and second in the whole city, just behind Camp Hill Girls
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Autumn 2014
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Community Apprentice: The Boardroom ‘Community Apprentice: The Boardroom’ took place at Edgbaston Cricket Ground on the evening of Wednesday 25 June. Since February this year, young people from ten Birmingham schools have been competing to raise funds and awareness for five local Birmingham charities. The challenge, based on BBC’s 'The Apprentice', was set by Sir Albert Bore, Leader of Birmingham City Council. It culminated in each team pitching why they should win in Sir Albert Bore’s ‘boardroom’ at the Council House. The event included live entertainment, awards, special guests and gave the opportunity for all students to collect their certificates and celebrate everything achieved since February. We are pleased to announce that the Team Cohesion Award went to Team Global from BVGS! Our Year 7 Science Fair in July was a brilliant new initiative from the Science department. The best entries from Year 7 had the opportunity to explain their experiments to an audience of visiting students, teachers and Governors. The competition was judged by two Governors, Bilal Ahmad and Carolyn Nicholl. Bilal wrote, “We were highly impressed by the quality of the Year 7 projects on display today. There were some excellent scientific principles put to the test, but particularly outstanding was the confidence with which the students explained their work. Picking the top three was not an easy task, but many congratulations to the winners and to Helen Pitt for the organisation.” Well done to all who took part and our winners: First place went to Haaris Butt – The Science behind Diet Coke and Mentos, Second Place to Fraser Chapman – Which liquid is the best conductor of heat? Third place to Erik Brown – How does the incline of a ramp affect the speed of a car?
Science Fair
Artsfest 8 July
Well done to Oliver Hobin, Ellen Rhodes and Eloise Harrison and all performers and helpers who arranged an absolutely first class Arts Fest. Karl Ward, OV, summed up the evening superbly when he wrote to the students saying, “Thank you for arranging a wonderful evening last night. We thought the quality of food and entertainment was ‘top drawer’ and can I ask that you pass on my personal thanks to all those who contributed on the night for making the evening such a success. You should also be really proud of yourselves for not only did you arrange a quality evening but you also managed to raise a fantastic £1500.00 for others who are less fortunate than ourselves and that is a fantastic achievement, well done.” The annual Year 7 Performance Evening in July saw students performing on stage: either singing, playing a brass instrument, reading out excerpts from their short stories or acting sketches they had written. Thanks to Maryann Dye, Director of Music and Sarah Slater, Second in English in particular for masterminding this fun event.
House Music Festivals The House Music Festivals took place in July. The confidence and skill of all the performers was outstanding. Well done to all Year 9 taking part and the competition winners: Tom Parkes, Harrison Payne, Philip Reader, Joe Perrin, Jon-Jon Tian, Balamrit Sokhal, Edward Stanley, Ben Wallace, Amarpal Johal, Daniel Jolaosho, James Cutting, Luca Beech, Eben Gutteridge, James Batten, Louis Kill-Brown. The Year 7 and 8 House Music Festival winners were André Bean, Ned Walklett, Fraser Chapman, Ethan Allen and Joseph Hughes. Red house were triumphant!
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World Challenge 2014
In July 16 Year 9 students undertook their own world challenge expedition to Norway. Following over a year preparing and fundraising, they embarked on one of the most physically challenging trips of their school career. After a day practising putting up tents, preparing supplies and checking kit and provisions, they were ready for their adventure. On arrival the students organised a rota for jobs around the camp and a team to manage their budget. Food and supplies for the wild camps ahead were bought, packaged up and distributed among the team. Two days of trekking through challenging terrain with heavy packs followed to a camp site on the side of a mountain lake. On day two the highest point in the surrounding area was reached – a great achievement. The scenery was stunning and the boys camped on an isolated island in a fjord. On the final day students enjoyed some rest and relaxation by white water rafting! Throughout the week the boys showed true character in facing difficult decisions and physically demanding conditions. Well done lads! Thanks to Ralph Brocklebank and Alex Davis for organising such a marvellous opportunity.
Bushcraft Also in July most of Year 9 took part in a new ‘Bushcraft ‘residential, organised by KS4 learning mentor Heather Hodkinson. This trip is designed to teach new bushcraft skills, as well help to develop team work and leadership skills. Students had a great time wild swimming, shelter building, fire lighting, learning first aid, panassing salmon, learning how to make traps and playing stealth games like ‘predator’. The trip provided a fantastic opportunity for students to experience a different kind of residential. The boys were a credit to the school and impressed both BVGS staff and the Bushcraft leaders with their enthusiasm and willingness to learn, participate and develop as team players and leaders. Many thanks to staff who went along - Andy Whittle, Kallyann Williams, Heather Hodkinson, Alex Jones, Ralph Brocklebank, Davina Jackson, Jaspreet Kandola.
Year 7 Residential Year 7 had their residential to Whitemoor Lakes, Alrewas in June. They started with a moving visit to the National Memorial Arboretum, in this the 100th anniversary year of the start of World War 1. As usual, they had an action-packed few days with plenty of exciting challenges to get stuck in to. Well done to Year 7 for their commitment and positivity and a big thank you for the large team of staff helpers including Lynn Penny, a stalwart of many a residential, who retired this summer.
French Exchange The Year 8 and 9 French Exchange to Dreux this year included a trip to Paris and Chartres. Everyone saw the Mona Lisa in the Louvre and the boys were able to make a stained glass window pane to take home. Thanks to Jane Broughton for organising yet another successful exchange trip.
German Exchange The German Exchange party had a fun packed week in Bayreuth thanks to Rudi Götschel, Head of Languages, Laura Diprose and Nicole Stodian for organising a great trip.
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DofE - Bronze Award Year 10 students attended twenty hours of after school preparation for the expedition; map reading, health and safety, campcraft and much more. The preparation paid dividends as all students successfully completed the qualifying expedition which involved walking with full rucksacks for two days and camping out. Well done to all involved and thanks to Cara Lawson and Helen Pitt for accompanying the expedition.
In June the Headteacher and Martin Lea had the pleasure of joining other Duke of Edinburgh providers at the Think-tank museum to recognise Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School as a directly licensed centre of the DofE Award. The certificate was presented by the Deputy Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands, Dr Derek Webley MBE, a representative of the Crown and was preceded by an inspirational speech from Phil Brown, Regional Director of the DofE Award in Central England and a silver medallist at the 1984 Olympic games. The DofE award has been introduced to Year 10 this year and next year will see it introduced to Y11 and Sixth Form students. As a result of being a DLC, the school can continue to enrich the lives of so many of our students in the future, supporting their self-development and recognising their achievement.
EPQ Celebration A large number of our L6 students took the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) this academic year. The results were very favourable indeed. It is very heartening to see the universities regarding this qualification in a very favourable light with some students receiving reduced UCAS offers because they had done a successful EPQ project. In June, Beth Gainford, New Head of L6, arranged a cream tea celebration in Old Big School to thank students for their excellent independent research and to showcase the work of those who produced the best EPQ projects, such as Leo Tsoi (pictured left)
Radical Reading During the summer break students and staff have been showing their enthusiasm for reading whatever time of day, wherever they might be. Photographs showing reading in unusual places were sent in and the winners selected. Winners below L-R Cornell Buck-Beason (Y8), Stan Piggott (Y9) and runners up Luke Moore (Y8) and Harry Ayto (Y9). Thanks to Seb Joy, English Department, for organising this thoughtprovoking and entertaining competition.
A2 Chemistry students Katherine Warton, Dilan Bamunuvitharana, Chris Wood, Adam Stewart and Tim Venables took part in the ‘Spectroscopy Masterclass’ at the School of Chemistry at Birmingham University. Thanks to the Chemistry Department for forging links with local Universities and arranged inspiring talks such as this.
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Attain Travel is a proud sponsor of Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School Sports
Cricket Champions
Second and Third for Leo The National Age Group Swimming Championships took place during the summer holidays. Leo Karski (9G) was the only representative of Boldmere swimming club, having qualified in 9 events. In four days of competition Leo swam 16 Personal Bests, reached six finals, and came 2nd in the 200m butterfly (breaking the Clubs Record) in a time of 2mins 21.57 seconds. Leo also finished 3rd in the UK for both the 400 IM & 200 IM events.
Well done to our First Team Cricket Under 19 County Champions. They all played well in the final, but men of the match were Captain Brinder Phagura with 125 not out and five wickets for six runs and Oliver Wem, who scored an important 62. Thank you to our sponsors Netherstowe House.
Sainsbury’s School Games Congratulations to Hamish Carter (pictured left) who achieved success at the Sainsbury’s School Games in Manchester at the beginning of September. Hamish won Team Gold, despite watching his team mate suffer a serious fall from High Bar and having to wait 20 minutes as he was treated and then stretchered from the arena, Hamish managed to compose himself and complete the final routine of the competition. All eyes were on him as he produced a winning routine, later described on Twitter as 'spine-tingling' to clinch the title of All Around School Games Champion. He also won two further Gold medals on Floor and Rings and two Bronze on High Bar and Vault. Well done Hamish!
Vesey Netball It is wonderful to see our Sixth Form girls (pictured right) once again as Birmingham Champions for Netball. The tournament at the end of September saw us convincingly defeat KE Five Way, KE High School, Fairfax, Bishop Walsh, Camp Hill A and B and Birmingham Met. We are now through to the West Midlands Finals in February, where we will try and qualify for the National Schools’ Finals. Well done to all the girls and their coaches Zylpha Clarke and Davina Jackson, not content with coaching, our staff Vesey netball team has also been very successful. They dominated last term’s summer league and won the final on Wednesday 16 July, beating Edgbaston High School – a team including Olympian Kelly Sotherton. It was a tense game which resulted in playing until a golden goal was scored fittingly by outgoing Head of L6, Samantha Harper. We thank her for all she has done to support all the students at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School.
Great Midlands Fun Run 1 June 2014 As usual we had a Team Vesey entry for the GMFR. Thanks to those staff, students and parents for supporting the event. Time to get into training for June 2015!
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Autumn 2014
Arrhythmia Alliance: When Muamba met Mr Davis!
On 11 June Alex Davis, Head of Year 8 (pictured above with Fabrice Muamba, the former Bolton Wanderers football player, who you may remember suffered a cardiac arrest during a televised FA Cup match in 2012) visited the House of Commons to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Arrhythmia Alliance charity. It was an opportunity for MP Glynn Davies, leading consultants, fund raisers and patients to meet and discuss the future provision of defibrillators in all public places. Special guests Fabrice and Shauna Muamba were there to support the charity. They have developed ‘Mrs Muamba’s cooking sauces’, with a view to raising money for the campaign with each jar sold. Please see links to the charity website and Mrs Muamba’s sauces: http://www.heartrhythmcharity.org.uk www.mrsmuambas.co.uk. Thanks to the initiative of Alex Davis, we now have a defibrillator on our school site.
Robot Football
Vesey the Guide Dog
Our Charities Team have done a superb job this year raising large amounts of money for local charities. They championed the cause of Guide Dogs for the Blind and showed great enthusiasm and energy. Well done to our outgoing team pictured with Vesey: Vibi Bhatia, Kate D’Aubrey and Anna Robson. We wish them well for the future
Languages in Sport One of the annual highlights of activities week is Languages in Sport Day led by Mark Keeble, Teacher of German and French. As usual sumo wrestling proved popular (see below).
Activities week in July always provides interesting academic enrichment opportunities. Year 7 (above) were delighted to be involved in our exciting Design Technology project of Robot Football. Thanks to Adam Belcher, Design Technology teacher, for organising this enjoyable learning experience.
An exciting new era for Veseyans RFC On Sunday 24 August the new sports facilities and improvements were officially opened at the Old Veseyan Memorial Ground in Little Hardwick Road, Streetly The event was an enjoyable family day with music and a barbeque. This splendid facility is also a tribute, as is the Memorial Ground, to those Old Veseyans who gave their lives during the two world wars. Also on that day Brian Davies organised a charity rugby game at Veseyans RFC, alongside the opening of the new facilities, to raise money for the services that helped when his younger daughter Aoife was seriously ill last year. In excess of £2,300 was raised for the two organisations that helped Aoife (pictured left). They were the Children's Intensive Care Unit at the University Hospital North Staffordshire and the Kids Intensive Decision and Support Team based at Birmingham Children's Hospital. Brian and his family have set themselves a new target of raising £20,000 for these organisations. The just giving page is still open if anyone would like to support this cause further, https://www.justgiving.com/aoifedavies/. The Vesey Old Boys team were victorious, with the final score being 89-48 after some questionable second half defence. Pictured right is Brian’s other daughter Isla on stage at the event.
BVGS Newsletter
Restaurant Vesey It is great to see the opening of our new dining facilities. The dining experience is definitely more pleasant in our bright new setting. Tom Williams and Vivienne Green have also been teaching cooking skills to Year 7. The food they have been making looks delicious! I hope you have had chance to taste it at home!
New student leadership 2014
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Founder’s Day 2014 We celebrated our Founder’s Day on the last Friday of half-term at a multi-faith service at Holy Trinity Church, just down the road from the school, where we always receive a warm welcome from the Rector, The Rev John Routh. Our Guest Speaker was Rehanah Sadiq, (pictured below) Muslim Chaplain for the Birmingham NHS Trust. She was interviewed by Claudia Haywood and Ali Lakhanpal. They did a fine job, asking interesting questions about Rehanah’s work and Islam in contemporary Britain. The theme of the service was ‘Wellbeing’. I am delighted that we raised £273.58 for ‘Mind’, which is a mental health charity we support through our work for the ‘Time for Change’ programme. As ever it was a moving event to get all our senior students together for the service. They were absolutely exemplary in the way they conducted themselves. Thanks to Russell Bowen for organising this year’s event. If you have any interesting suggestions for possible guest speakers for 2015, please let Mr Robson know.
Our new student leadership team has made a fantastic start. Sebastian Heley (centre), School Captain, ably supported by his two deputies, Tom Reershemius and Maddie Turner, has introduced all sorts of exciting new initiatives to improve Vesey life. The new Media, Marketing and Communication Committee for example is already playing an excellent role in promoting the school during our Growing Vesey, Growing Minds campaign. The quality of student presentations has been superb. It has also been good to note an improved presence of Sixth Formers in working with younger students across the school. Those of you who attended the Old Veseyan Association Dinner in September will know that Maddie gave a very impressive speech. As Ofsted put it, the Sixth Form are ‘outstanding role models for younger students.’
We shall remember them .. On Friday 10 October, a special ceremony was held at school, led by the Sutton Civic Society, to unveil Blue Plaques, (see below) to the right of the Lichfield Road Common Room entrance, in honour of our two Old Veseyan Victoria Cross winners: Alan Jerrard and Gus Bonner. Alan Jerrard, son of the Headmaster of BVGS, was known as the ‘Pyjama VC’ because when captured in the war, he was found wearing his pyjamas under his flying suit. He distinguished himself in the Royal Flying Corps on four occasions on the Italian front in the Spring of 1918. Over a period of 23 days he destroyed enemy machines and displayed bravery and ability of the very highest order. Gus Bonner, the son of a Staffordshire farmer, received his VC as a member of the British Navy for his role in an encounter between the Q Ship Dunraven and a German U-boat in August 1917, which saw Gus stay at his post and continue to do his duty, despite the terrifying conditions in which he and his men found themselves. We were delighted to be able to invite David Partridge MBE, aged 94 from Aldridge, pictured below with Mr Robson. David is Gus Bonner’s nephew.
Thanks to the support of Clive Richards OBE DL (OV) we have honoured these two great Old Veseyans, in this the 100th anniversary year of the beginning of World War I, through the refurbishment of Old Big School. The dais now proudly displays the replica VC medals of Messrs Jerrard and Bonner as well as a fine Edwardian presentation silver-gilt Monteith bowl and stand which was initially presented by members of the Staffordshire Territorial Force in honour of the great service and very gallant action of Alan Jerrard.
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Amazing PAC At the end of October it was a pleasure to welcome Mr Philip Stanley who has chaired the Parents Association Committee with great skill and commitment over the last two and a half years. Last year alone under his leadership the PAC raised a fabulous £16000 for computer provision here at school. It was wonderful for him to receive the applause from the students he and his team richly deserve. Good luck to our new chair of the PAC John Beggan. I am sure you will join me in supporting John as best we can in his new role.
Opening of Cricket Nets On Sunday 29 June we opened officially our outdoor cricket nets. It was a pleasure to welcome our good friend, Vesey Ambassador, Peter Randon (left) OV (former Chair of Governors and former Chair of the OVA) who made a lovely speech to a good crowd of parents, staff and Old Veseyans. Without Peter’s commitment and generosity we would not have been able to open such a wonderful new facility. To mark the occasion we held two exciting cricket matches with the 2nd XI losing to the Elephants and, in an exciting finish, the school 1st XI defeating the Old Boys with one ball to spare. Some excellent cricket was played. It was wonderful to see Oliver Wem Year 11, smashing the ball out of the ground with one six and three fours from one over. A big thank you to Phil Baker, Graham Swindells, Dave Goodwin, Chris Howell, Bob Brown, Jim Carr, Harwoods Accountants and all supporters and helpers for making it a great day.
New Netball and Tennis Courts for BVGS On Wednesday 10 September we marked a momentous step forward in our provision with the opening of four new tennis and netball courts. It was brilliant to welcome back so many young OVs who impressed all our guests with their excellent skills in tennis and netball. It was particularly good to see a highly competitive game being played between the school netballers v the 'old girls'. It was good that David Iddon, former Headteacher, Clive Richards OBE DL, former Chair of Governors and Peter Randon, former Chair of Governors were all there to celebrate the opening. Clive and David led the speeches. Without their energy and commitment, and the support of all donors this superb addition to our facilities would not have been built.
Growing Vesey, Growing Minds On 20 October we began the public phase of the Growing Vesey, Growing Minds Campaign to raise funds to build a new STEM block for the school. I am delighted to announce that we have already raised £126,137.50, which is a good start on the way to our £750,000 fundraising target. The Campaign Board and I will be inviting every parent to a reception so you can hear at first hand our exciting plans for the future and find out how you might be able to help us. Thank you to all our enthusiastic Campaign Board members and volunteers. If you would like to get involved please don’t hesitate to contact the Headteacher on s.weblin@bishopveseys.bham.sch.uk.
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