Headteacher’s NewsletterHeadteacher’s Newsletter

End of Term Spring 2011End of Term Spring 2011

Vesey daffodils

fluttering and dancing in the breeze, have

greeted us on our campus over the past few

weeks and have heralded brighter days to

come. It certainly has been action-packed

over the past, somewhat longer, half-term.

Easter seems to have all but slipped into the

Summer Term!

Spring brings with it re-growth and re-

generation and the message of resurrection

to new life. We are delighted this Springtime

to report herewith a growth spurt in all we

are setting out to achieve, a rising to new

challenges, a veritable burgeoning of new

ideas and exciting projects to make the

school even stronger and better.

Our students continue to benefit from the

support of so many who give so generously

to provide the opportunities pictured and

chronicled in this newsletter.

Sincere thanks to all involved.

New shoots of more growth and further

flourishing to come……...

BISHOP VESEY’S

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Message from the Head

Congratulations to Dr Nick Colclough,

Head of Physics, on his recent academic

publication through the IJSE on knowl-

edge of and attitudes to radioactivity and

ionising radiation.

David Iddon

Headteacher

Staff News Ready, Steady, Cook! came to Big School on 31 March for a fun lesson in

cookery and healthy eating, thanks to Hannah

Lockyer and Sam Harper who invited our cater-

ers Chartwells to stage this exciting show with

participation from Year 7. Good food, good fun and

lots of hands-on learning! Winners: Red Tomatoes!

Mohammed Rafiq, grandfather of Nosheen Mahmood L6, joined Dominic Robson,

Deputy Head, and L6 historians to talk about his experience of emigrating to Britain from

Kashmir in the early 1960s. Students enjoyed the chance to research through interview on

the topic of immigration, an important feature of the AS History course .

AS students welcome personal historical perspective.

Our host from Chartwells Catering asks Stephen

Lyncook 7K if he is on track to complete within the

15 minutes allowed to ‘get the food on the table’.

Sam Harper and her Green Peppers

Hannah Lockyer and her Red Tomatoes

Masterchef, Jacob Richards of 7P

Charity contributions have soared again

this term, despite the economic down-

turn, with increased donations from

students on non-uniform days.

Charity

John Taylor Hospice: £426.00

Norman Laud Association: £270.69

Red Cross Japan: £657.85

Red Nose Day 2011: £657.85

Great Ormond Street Hospital : £932.87

Yr 9: Anil Parmar and Ikam Nijhar

Yr 11: Vikram Vara and Arandeep Sidhu

Headteacher’s NewsletterHeadteacher’s Newsletter Page 2

Phil Barker & James Rostron organised the donation of 500 textbooks

and reference books from Biology and Business Studies to School Aid.

Kevin Wamsley & Alan Sanders conveyed the cargo to The Enter-

tainer store in Sutton to be forwarded to the Charity.

Young scientists who meet after-

school are pictured below. The

winners of the ‘Tallest Tower

Challenge’, according to the

criteria set at the start: Sam

Davis and Jamie Hale . Con-

gratulations also to Nat Long-

horne & Andrew Horkan

whose 60cm strong tower met

the spirit of the brief, as did

Shalen Joshi & Cem Vergh-

ese's impressive 142.5cm tower.

10 Gold awards, 20 Silver awards, 23 Bronze awards. Joe Davies scored 90 taking him through to the next

round known as the ‘Pink Kangaroo’. Callum Riley’s top score of 101 allows him to take the prestigious

‘Hamilton Paper’ in the next round, a test available only to the TOP 400 in the country. Well done to

both Joe and Callum for securing places in the next round.

Birmingham University

Big Biology Quiz 2011

On World Book Day, we invited award

winning author Bali Rai to school. Bali

spoke to students in Yrs 7-11. Yr 8 stu-

dents Ash, Shahzaib and Gavandeep

interviewed Bali. The interview is now

on the BVGS website.

Congratulations to the Year 8 prize

winners of the Bali Rai competition.

BVGS Yr 10 competed against over

60 teams from 20 schools in this

annual competition in The Great

Hall of B’ham Uni on 24 March and

were tested with GCSE to A-level

standard questions on a variety of

topics. The Vesey Team B came

third in the bonus playdough model-

ling round with their labeled model

of a virus particle and also took joint

third place overall in the competi-

tion. Our A Team of Andy Quach,

Bradley Perham, Callum Riley

& Chris Nowek finished 2nd just 1

pt behind the winners! An exciting

and rewarding day.

D&T Competition

Demonstrating considerable gifted and

talented ability in D&T, Ben Jesson,

Michael Saunders, Kieran Jones,

Ho-San Cheng & Harry Bailey of Yr

8 teamed up to reach the final of the egg

transportation challenge at Plantsbrook

School on 4 March.

World Book Day

Junior Science Club

‘Family Fortunes’ comes to Vesey’s with The James Family v The Cotterill Family

A student-led new charity event which raised £280 replicating the TV show in great detail and entertaining an audience of over 250 students

Organisers and ‘Families’ Mohammad Uzayr U6 Teacher Simon James v Robert Cotterill And our survey says……..

Yr 10 National Intermediate Level Maths Challenge Results 2011

Swimming

Staff organise donation of books to School Aid

Yr 9 interview U6 on UCAS and careers

A new event this year, organised by David Phillips, Head of IAG

during which Yr 9 had the opportunity to pick the brains of senior

students on important careers and university entrance issues.

Music Department - Composition and Concert

On 2 March, Stuart Stevens, (right) a lecturer at B’ham

Conservatoire and Composer in Residence at Purple Mo-

ments, offered a special workshop to 24 students, who

were encouraged to think ‘outside the box’ and compose in

an unconventional way. Our Spring Concert on 28 March

was a wonderful event, standards being maintained, indeed

further improved. Our young musicians entertained us

through a wide-range of musical genres, demonstrating their

hard work this term, their intensity of concentration and

their great joy in performance.

Team Vesey 2011

The Great Midlands Fun Run on

Sunday 5th June: Team Vesey

will support the education of

two Tanzanian girls, the Cardio-

myopathy Association and re-

surfacing for netball/tennis.

www.greatmidlandsfunrun.com

BRMB walkathon 8th May. For

further information:

www.brmb.co.uk/walkathon.

Congratulations to Brad-

ley Lynch 10W now in

the U16 British Swimming

squad, competing this April.

Page 3 April 2011April 2011

30 Yr 10 students visited Iceland during the

February half term. Students experienced the

Volcanic Black Beach below, visited several

waterfalls, volcanic craters and were fortunate

enough to see a display of the Northern

Lights. The trip supported GCSE Geography

work in tectonics, rivers and glaciation. Special

thanks to party leaders Sam Harper, Matt

Collins and Ruth Hearn

Matt Collins, Sam Harper, Elliot Godwin

and Bill Potter led a party of 40 L6 students

who spent three days in Snowdonia in March,

studying river characteristics and glaciated

valleys and enjoying clear skies seen above.

Four U6 students recently won a week long

trip to The Gambia as a result of winning the

national 'Responsible Holidays' competi-

tion which was entered by 110 schools. The

trip involved visits to three different Gambian

schools as well as a number of eco-tourism

excursions such as nature reserves, visits to

mangroves and deep sea fishing. Students

have since delivered a number of assemblies

outlining the problems of poverty and educa-

tion in the country as well as its growing

reputation for responsible tourism. The trip

was led by Matt Collins and Chris Howell

also took part in the trip, offering specialist

cricket coaching to the local schools.

33 L6 students (right) and Pam Maskell got up extra

early on Sunday 27 March to help marshal the 7 Pools

Run in Sutton Park. 3 of our students Jamie Billingsley

L6, Jeavon Tagger L6 & Peter Moss U6 actually ran

the 10k race. All money raised from this event goes to

The Norman Laud Association.

Steve Baugh and GTP Trainee Natalie O'Gor-

man took the joint AS & A2 Geology field-

trips. They attended three separate days of

geological fieldwork on 14 March at Aust in

The Severn Estuary, 15 March in the Malverns

and on 16 March at Barr Beacon. New practi-

cal skills were used to collect valuable course-

work data by all 15 students.

Lyon Exchange

L6 Geography Field Trip

Year 10 Iceland Trip 2011

Geology Field Trip 2011

BVGS Trip to The Gambia. March 2011

Sutton Coldfield Schools Parliamentary Debating Competition

Tom Davies (left) and Sam Rhodes (right), representing BVGS, in experienced parliamentary com-

pany. Andrew Mitchell MP, who launched this inter-school event in 2003, set the tone for a

splendid evening of debate in his opening address. Overall winners this year: Plantsbrook School.

23 March: Sander of MADE Training

helped Yr 10 & Yr 11 develop new

memory and learning techniques for

exam revision using a variety of aids,

including mentally walking around Big

School! www.made-training.com

Learning made easy!

Visitors from our partner school Louis

Labe in Lyon joined the Vesey Sixth

Form on their recent visit in March, as

part of the B’ham-Lyon Schools link.

New hair style for Charity!

Form Tutor Wendy Brown and members of 8W

who raised £300 for the Japan Earthquake Appeal,

sponsored to wear white hair for the day! Moham-

med Sufyain raised £192.78

100% success in English Literature

Following re-sit results, 100% of our current U6 Litera-

ture students have either a grade A or B at AS. 86% of

L6 AS English Lang/Lit students gained a grade A or B in

the recent AS modules. Accompanied by Kate Stead-

man & Jan Townsend, 28 Year 11 students attended

a Language Revision Conference on 1 March and 24 U6

and L6 students attended a series of lectures entitled

‘Love in Literature Through The Ages’ on 8 March in

preparation for their examinations.

Marshals for 7 Pools 10K Race

Headteacher’s NewsletterHeadteacher’s Newsletter Page 4

Published for BVGS by Sharon Weblin, Headteacher’s PA sw@bishopveseys.bham.sch.uk. Printed by Jayne Joyce , BVGS Reprographics.

Rugby: Game over for U6! U6 1st XV members go out in style! Captain Jack

Robson led his team to a resounding 57-3 victory over

KE VI Aston on 26 March to end a season packed with

memories of many great wins (including Champions at the

KE VI Aston 7s) and some narrow defeats in a tough fix-

ture card against the best of the Midlands rugby schools, U13A Rugby Team

brought home three trophies. Captain John

Clarke, (pictured right) with two from three!

Greater B’ham Tournament winners and Plate

winners at Adams’ GS 7s and at King’s Maccles-

field Tournament. A fantastic end to the season!

The U13B Team ‘back-up’ boys who

competed in the 7s tournament at KE VI

Five Ways on behalf of the U13A team

members who were winning elsewhere!

1st XV Captain, Jack Robson

Winger Ryan Brunsden U6 weaves his way for the last time.

Matt Goodall L6 dives in for a try from 5 metres out.

TRY! For Max Hughes L6……..Tom Cooper U6 pops over the conversion.

U18 England Hockey

Navraj Degun L6 proudly mod-

els his full England kit ahead of the

representative games to come.

U12A Rugby Team

Greater Birmingham Champions

having beaten KES B’ham, Fairfax School and KE

VI Camp Hill in the final and winners of the

Plate at King’s Macclesfield Tournament.

U13A Captain John Clarke

Hockey - Round-up of the Season 2010-11

The 1st XI completed an outstanding season with a comprehensive 6-2 win over Adams’ G.S. It rounded off a memorable season in which they have

only lost one game on a Wednesday afternoon all season and that was a last gasp goal in extra time. One of the most successful hockey sides in the

school’s history. The final statistics: P20 W15 D4, L1 with 83 goals scored! Captain Jack Kelly U6 has led the team from the front and ended up

joint top goal scorer with Harry White L6 - a superb totals of 21 goals each. The attitude and commitment of the senior hockey group has been

faultless. We say farewell this year to U6 members Jack Kelly, Matthew Beasley, Tom Homer, Andrew Coulthard, James Youngman,

Nicola Shilliday who have all played regularly in the first team. The Junior sides have also been very successful against some of the top independent

schools in the Midlands. Navraj Degun L6 may be the first of many who will receive regional or national honours.

More success for outdoor and indoor rowers Sportsman’s Lunch

Mike Edge OV, national level oars-

man and gold medallist at Henley,

now at Wallington ARC on the

Thames, dropped in for a chat over

lunch to inspire our crews and later

to observe the Powells Pool outings.