Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School Inspiration and Excellence

Simply outstanding!

The official Bishop Vesey’s Twitter account is @BVGS1527 Follow us on

http://www.bvgs.co.uk/

BVGS enters TOP 25!

Headteacher

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 excep-

tionally 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

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 .

Autumn 2014 Page 2

House Music Festivals

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.”

‘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 includ-

ed 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!

Community Apprentice: The Boardroom

Our Year 7 Science Fair in July was a brilliant new initia-

tive 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 Gover-

nors. 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

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.

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!

BVGS Newsletter Page 3

Bushcraft

French Exchange German Exchange

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 em-

barked 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 en-

joyed some rest and relaxation by white water rafting! Throughout the week the boys showed true character in facing difficult decisions and physi-

cally demanding conditions. Well done lads! Thanks to Ralph Brocklebank and Alex Davis for organising such a marvellous opportunity.

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 oppor-

tunity 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.

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

B r o u g h t o n f o r

organising yet another

successful exchange trip.

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.

Autumn 2014 Page 4

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 thought-

provoking 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.

Page 5 BVGS Newsletter

Attain Travel is a proud sponsor of Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School Sports

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.

Cricket Champions

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!

Sainsbury’s School Games

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!

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.

Autumn 2014 Page 6

Languages in Sport

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 Chil-

dren'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 organisa-

tions. The just giving page is still open if anyone would like to support this cause fur-

ther, https://www.justgiving.com/aoifedavies/. The Vesey Old Boys team were victori-

ous, 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.

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

Robot Football

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.

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).

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 pro-

vision 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.

Arrhythmia Alliance: When Muamba met Mr Davis!

BVGS Newsletter Page 7

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

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.’

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.

We shall remember them ..

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.

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.

Autumn 2014 Page 8

Thank you for your support

http://www.bvgs.co.uk/alumni/alumni-community

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.

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.

New Netball and Tennis Courts for BVGS

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.