Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School Inspiration and Excellence

Spring 2015

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

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

Bringing Smiles to Children with Ebola

Headteacher

On 16 December we welcomed His Excellency Edward Turay, the

Sierra Leonean High Commissioner and his team to BVGS. Thanks to

the heroic actions of two of our Vesey staff, Alex Davis (Head of Year

8) and Julie Wadeson (Physics Technician) the Vesey community had

been inspired and motivated to collect shoeboxes, containing basic items

such as soap, toothpaste, pens and paper, for children devastated by the

Ebola crisis in West Africa. We were overwhelmed by the number of

boxes collected. In an emotional speech in assemblies, His Excellency

said ‘Thank you to Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School for these wonderful

gifts which will bring smiles to Ebola-affected children’. The students

also received an informative talk by a microbiologist, Dr Susan

Manzoor, from Heartlands Hospital about the Ebola virus. There are

so many staff and students who helped make this visit a success. Our

students were superb, in particular Ben Woodford, Eloise Harrison,

Ellen Rhodes, Oliver Hobin, Robert Huskisson, Jessica Ridout

and Sebastian Heley. Without their organisation, enthusiasm, effort

and commitment, the visit would not have gone as well as it did. Also a

big thank you to Lewis Hawker, Nathan Lawrence, Elliott Brown,

Zak Manzoor and Freddie Goodrham.

BBC Midlands Today and ITV Central News covered the story. In

February the boxes were delivered in person to the Sierra Leone High

Commission by Alex Davis and Julie Wadeson.

Growing Vesey, Growing Minds Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School is a special place. We were

delighted to receive external validation for our work this half-term

when we received news, for the second year running, that we have

won a national SSAT Award for Outstanding Student Outcomes and

Progress at GCSE! At the same time I am delighted to announce that

we have now raised £621,000. Best of all we have learned that our

bid to the Government for £2m has been successful. This is an

incredible achievement for the school and an absolute triumph for our

School Business Manager, Graham Swindells who wrote our CIF

bid. We were one of only four grammar schools nationally (and the

only one in the Midlands) to be awarded money for expansion. It was

a very tight bidding round with schools bidding for £1.6 billion and

only 20% of that money being available. If you want to help us com-

plete our fundraising target, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the

Campaign Office here at school.

Happy Easter!

We continue to take a keen

interest in the problems and

challenges of fighting Ebola. For

example Dr Sowsan Atabani

(left), Consultant Virologist at

Public Health England gave an

excellent talk to our Sixth Form

students about the Ebola virus

Electron microscope image of

Ebola virus

An artist’s impression of our new STEM block

Spring 2015 Page 2

Time to Act

On Thursday 26 February we welcomed James Merry (OV) and Claire Huckle for their annual Time to Act workshop opportunity for Year 7 and 8 students. The performances at the end of the day were excellent with James commenting that the participants this year were a particularly ‘talented bunch’. See James and Claire’s website for further details of what they do, www.time2act.uk.com.

Another OV Georgina Jones is coming in to school on Thursday 16 April to deliver an acting workshop for Years 7 and 8 focussing on

encouraging creativity and imagination.

Straight Talking The Round Midnight Theatre

Company, a Birmingham

based creative arts company,

visited school at the end of

February to deliver a play,

'Straight Talking' and an

interactive workshop for Y8

and Y9 students. The topic

w a s ‘ c o m b a t t i n g

homophobia’. Thanks to

Heather Hodkinson,

Learning Mentor, for organis-

ing this event. The actors

were very impressed with

the engagement of our boys.

Community Award Elliott Brown from

Year 8 won the ‘Young

Carer of the Year’ Award

at the Stockland Green

Community Awards

Night in November. He

has also been invited to

the Houses of Parliament

to be a spokesperson for

the YMCA in the West

Midlands and has also

raised money for RE-

LEASE, a charity for

young carers. He is

pictured here receiving

the award from Junaid Gharda who is also a BVGS parent.

Sixth Form Parliamentary Debating Competition On Thursday 12 March BVGS hosted the Sutton Coldfield Parliamentary Debating Competition. It was a pleasure to welcome all the Sutton

schools, our guest panel and our local MP Andrew Mitchell. The evening was a big success. Thanks to all those who made it happen including

Adam Belcher, Jo Davis, Sharon Weblin, Jon Holden, Kevin Wamsley, Paul Boyle, Andy Tomlinson, the Art Department, the

Officer Team, Bridie Curtis and her team, Ben Woodford, Tom Reershemius, Tom Cotterill, Dr Adrian Reilly, Jim Goldstraw,

Graham Swindells, Russell Bowen and last, but not least, a big thank you to the amazing Lesley Overton for leading on hospitality. We

received lovely emails from all the host schools on the quality of the event. By the way our speakers did very well, coming a close second to Arthur

Terry School. Well done Lewis Terry (below centre and right) and Adam Smith (below left) for doing a brilliant job.

March 2015 Page 3

Through the Key-hole of the LRC

Our school library is a friendly and welcoming place to be. Under the leadership of Wendy

Brown and Alison Ward ‘the library is a hive of activity and the displays, including the

students’ book wall encourages creativity and promotes a love of reading’. (Ofsted 2014).

Our reps (pictured above) are an outstanding team of helpers, who show great responsibility

and leadership in assisting the staff with the smooth running of the library.

Dr Who Day

The school held a ‘Dr Who’ day last term when the author Daniel Blythe (who has written Dr Who novels) visited the school. Students dressed

up as their favourite doctor for the day and there was a prize for the best costume. There was also an opportunity to design a ‘sonic screwdriver’.

Daniel gave advice to students on writing and was interviewed by them.

The author Bali Rai visited BVGS in February. He

attended Y7 and 8 assembly and as part of their

English homework the boys were given the task of

competing a poster about Bali Rai to include

reviews of his books. Bali also gave a talk to Year

10 about his new book ‘Web of Darkness’. Bali is

pictured (above) signing books.

Chris Bradford, author of Young Samurai and

Bodyguard was in school at the beginning of

March. He demonstrated the art of being a

'bodyguard' which he trained to do before he

wrote his books. He also demonstrated use of the

Samurai sword - he is a qualified swordsman! The

students really enjoyed meeting Chris and hearing

about his books.

There are always plenty of

activities going on. We held a

Harry Potter Book Night in

February. World Book Day

was celebrated in March and

there will be Dreadlock Alien

Workshops on 13 July. In the

‘Read for My School’ competi-

tion students were encour-

aged to read as many and as

wide a range of books as they

could in the two months of

the competition, with the

option of writing a review of a

selected book from the online

library. Students can also find

many links to e-resources on

the Library VLE page along

with details of ‘books of the

week’.

Spring 2015 Page 4

In November, Angus Carter (9R)

played The Last Post at the Remem-

brance Assembly at Rocklands

Special School in Lichfield. Emily

Bacon from Rocklands reported that

‘assemblies are often fairly noisy

affairs, but the children sat spell-

bound when Angus was playing.

(Afterwards they gave him an

enthusiastic round of applause!)’.

She added that Angus conducted

himself in a pleasant and confident

manner, and his musicianship was

excellent.

Remembrance The 100th anniversary of World War I beginning gave our Remembrance services more poignancy than

ever. Dr Craggs, Chair of Governors is pictured below in Old Big School with Deputy Captain

Maddie Turner and Sebastian Heley, School Captain.

World War I Scrapbook Competition

As part of our Remembrance the History Department launched a World War I

Scrapbook Competition. The closing date is Friday 17 April and we expect to

see some really creative work – using images, text, ideas and original ways to

educate and inform other young people about the First World War. The only rule

given is that students should try and find something from each letter of the Alpha-

bet. They can make their own scrapbook, buy one and fill it or do something really

different. We would like to see as many students enter the competition as possible

– there are prizes to be won.

An Old Veseyan Honoured

On Friday 20 March a special

memorial stone was unveiled

on The Green in Aldridge in

honour of Vesey Victoria

Cross winner, Gus Bonner

OV. Our own Dave Phil-

lips, who has written books

on the involvement of Old

Veseyans in War was in at-

tendance. It was also great to

see one of our cadets Louis

Kill-Brown from 10G

(pictured right) playing in the

marching band on this occa-

sion.

After Christmas 15 students from Year 8 and 9 attended

BMet, accompanied by Mrs Arrandale and Mr Everett

to mark the 100th anniversary of the Great War and to

remember the many that died for our freedom. The

workshop was interactive and activities were based upon

the lives of the war time population, including the Christ-

mas truce football match. ‘We all learnt the importance of

remembrance and the significance of such a widespread

conflict. Our day spent as a 1914 citizen was beneficial

both to our learning and our enjoyment.’ Alasdair Bell

9R ‘It was a very educational day and it really opened my

eyes’ Alex Bailey 8R, ‘It was a truly fun yet thought-

provoking day’ Sam Harkin 8B, ‘The talk from a current

soldier was very deep and it just made us think – why did

all of this happen?’ Harvey Quinn 8B‘As a result of my

experience, the sheer tragedy and destruction of World

War One is clear’ Robert Hollinghurst 9R.

Vesey installs two new de-fibrillators

Bishop Vesey’s have received the school’s first two de-

fibrillators having raised an impressive £2500 for

Arrhythmia Alliance through a non-uniform day and Mr

Davis reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro and completing

the Paris Marathon in 2013 following the cardiac arrest he

suffered as a result of an underlying heart condition (Wolff

-Parkinson-White Syndrome) in 2012. The installation of

the de-fibs will mean that the school is prepared to deal

with a sudden cardiac arrest as a result of an undetected

heart arrhythmia and provide the first line of medical

support. Our school requires de-fibs as a result of the

active community life of the school. From the extraordi-

nary breadth of our extra-curricular programme, including

rowing, rugby, hockey, cricket, netball and tennis to the

incredible music concerts, charity events, drama

productions, guest speakers, OV’s and parents who pass

through the school every day, the de-fibs will be on hand

and offer a vital tool in giving someone a 50% chance of

surviving a cardiac arrest. For more information in regards

to the charity and heart arrhythmias and conditions please

visit their website http://www.heartrhythmcharity.org.uk/

www/436/0/About/

Page 5 March 2015

What are learning habits?

Building Learning Habits At Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School we believe that learning isn’t just about examination

results. It is about preparation for life. We want to encourage all our students to have

excellent learning habits. Ofsted recognised our work in this area when they wrote ‘lessons

include a strong focus on students building the learning habits they need to find things out

for themselves and to develop curiosity and confidence’. On 24 March we held a BLH

information evening for parents. Thanks to Russell Bowen, Deputy Headteacher and

Steve Baugh, Assistant Headteacher for organising this event. Our parents worked very

hard. They persevered, made links and reflected on their learning. Thank you to all who

attended for their enthusiasm in supporting the exciting work we are doing to build better

learning habits at BVGS.

Learning habits are the routine ways in which we think when we are faced with life’s experiences and challenges.

We acquire habits through use until they become intuitive

We can help pupils to get better at ‘doing it for themselves’

Which learning habits are we focussing particularly on at BVGS?

Unless you experience

symptoms of being

wrong, your brain will

never revise its models.

Before your neurons

can succeed, they must

repeatedly fail. There

are no shortcuts for

this painstaking process.

Jonah Lehrer, The

Decisive Moment

Resourcefulness: making links in Geography

Spring 2015 Page 6

Come to Vesey, see the World

At February half-term Beth Gainford, Head of L6, Min Egan, Head of U6, Andrew

Whittle, Teacher of Physics, Ian Bousfield, Teacher of Geography and Rowing and

Russell Bowen, Deputy Headteacher led our annual ski trip. This year they went to the

Italian ski resort of Bardonecchia, home to the Winter Olympics in 2006. We were de-

lighted with the behaviour of the students, the leadership shown by our Sixth Formers and

the resilience which our students applied to their learning of skiinig. Roll on next year!

We enjoyed welcoming our friends from the

Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Gymnasium in

Bayreuth for the 18th year running. There

were 23 student visitors accompanied by trip

leader Dieter Kaleschke and Lisa Öttinge.

A special thank you to our all our host

families especially the Carters, Caseys,

Jarretts, Leyvas and Mrs Penny. It went

fantastically well. We look forward to the

return trip from 20 - 28 June.

Our Sixth Form German Group enjoyed their visit to

Berlin with Herr Götschel and Fraulein Slater.

They are pictured above at the new Reichstag.

Thanks to Laura Diprose and the French Department for organising an excellent

French Exchange to Lyon. Our students enjoyed meeting our hosts at the Lycée

Louise Labé Lyon. Good friendships were fostered and cemented and the sights of

Lyon such as the cathedral (above right) were visited.

Y9 using our new Surface Tablets to plan their

French advertising campaigns for the

Apprentice Project.

French Exchange to Lyon

Vesey Charity Vesey Charity has been very active in recent months

led by our wonderful charity captains Oliver Hobin,

Eloise Harrison and Ellen Rhodes. Comic Relief

was particularly successful this year with a whopping

total of £5,007.50. There were some new additions

this year with a whole week dedicated to fund-raising

with new events such as the table tennis 12 hour

marathon. 8W and their Form Tutor Naima Field

led the way with their own version of the bake-off.

Well done to Alex Bailey, Jaden Lo-Watson and Sam

Harkin who were all stars in completing both the quiz and

La Semaine de la Francophonie

German Exchange Computing in Languages

March 2015 Page 7

Year 9 have been developing photography work in

their Art lessons over the last few weeks. Staff have

organised two trips into Sutton town centre to

consider how architecture can be used as a subject

for creating photomontages. They enjoyed this

experience, and learnt new techniques of 'joining and

layering' images in the style of David Hockney. Stu-

dents are able to extend their artistic learning

through the use of ICT and Photoshop, as shown in

this example by Harry Wem

Academic Excellence in STEM Now that we have been successful with our £2m bid to the Government we are looking forward to building our new STEM block. STEM

(Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is already a very strong feature of our school. Here you can see some excellent work being pro-

duced in Design and Technology.

Here we have Aidan Hill and Barney Miller of Year 8 with their ambulance and train respectively. We also have some excellent examples of

work from other students.

On the right we

have photographs of

Harry Ayto’s (also

Year 9) Quadcopter

toy he designed on

the DT Depart-

ments new Creo 3D

modelling software.

In November we were delighted to welcome Dr Dan Maskell OV from Bath Uni-

versity. Dan gave an excellent talk on Engineering. Students have been having a lot of fun in Science Club.

Here Nichola Long from 7BL is enjoying exploring

the properties of slime.

Careers Week During National Careers Week students signed up to talks on Law, Engineering, Dentistry. Thanks to Tom Jackson (OV), Peter Davies, Gover-

nor, Wayne Geldard, parent, Steve Clements, former parent, Natalie Ashby, (Law) teacher and Adrian Reilly Economics teacher for their

support. We also welcomed back Rebecca Fellows (OV) to talk about higher level apprenticeships with Deloitte and Laura Bray from Durham

University. Thank you to Lesley Overton, Examinations/Business Support Officer and Julie Robson, Governor for making this happen.

Spring 2015 Page 8

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

Thank you for your support

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

Dan VENABLES– RYA UK Squad Sailor a member of the Royal Yachting Association UK Youth/ Junior Squad.

Dan’s selection for this squad recognises their potential to progress within the British Sailing Team, with the aim of

winning selection for our UK Youth Squads or beyond in to our Olympic Development programmes. Dan has been

selected on the basis of their performance and commitment to a programme of training and competition over a period

of several years and establishes their status as a UK Squad sailor who we hope will represent Great Britain at major

international events in the forthcoming years. Information relating to the UK Squad programme can be accessed on

the following website: www.rya.org.uk/racing/youthjunior.

BVGS Sixth Form Girls organised the High 5 Netball tournament at the end of November for girls in Year 6 at local

primary schools. Emma Jackson from Boldmere Junior School I took 18 girls, from who all thoroughly enjoyed the

day. She said ‘t was run exceptionally professionally and the girls were a real credit to you. In particular, Madeleine

Turner demonstrated excellent organisation skills and communicated brilliantly leading up to the competition. We

also had two training sessions at the school run by Ore Akinwale and Kirun Sehra, which my girls loved. We

would love to have them back at training, when it recommences in Spring, if they would like to come. I hope this

event becomes an annual one, or possibly could be repeated in the Summer term?’

High Five Netball Tournament

Growing Vesey, Growing Minds … in London On Tuesday we held our 17th reception of the Growing Vesey, Growing Minds Campaign. We are grateful for all the homes we have been

welcomed into and the support we have been given along the way. As part of our re-connecting with Old Veseyans we have been supported to

offer two London receptions. This week we were at Osbourne Clarke in the City of London and back in January we hosted a reception at the

world famous Reform Club on Pall Mall. Thanks to all the students, staff, parents, Old Veseyans and Governors who have spread the word about

our campaign.

National Success for BVGS

What a term for Vesey Sport. Our Senior Girls Netball team qualified for the National finals in Ellesmere Port. The U13 Hockey Team also

qualified for the Nationals - the first time a BVGS Hockey team has reached such dizzy heights since the 1970s. Meanwhile the U13 Rugby team had

an amazing tournament at the World’s Best 7s Contest at Rosslyn Park in London. They smashed all private school opposition in front of them

until losing to the ultimate winners Dulwich College. What an amazing time to be playing sport at BVGS. Well done to all the coaches, our

amazingly supportive parents and of course, our talented students.