Lichfield Road, Sutton Coldfield, B74 2NH, 0121 250 5400, www.bvgs.co.uk

Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School is Company Limited by Guarantee and registered in England and Wales with company number 7986921. The Registered Office is at Lichfield Road, Sutton Coldfield B74 2NH

The Governors of Bishop Vesey's Grammar School are a registered charity (No: 517907)

DGR/sw

29 March 2018

Dear Parents/Carers

Jerrard 100 Lewisham

Old Veseyan, Flight Lieutenant Alan Jerrard, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for valour for on 30 March 1918, was honoured in London last Saturday in the borough of his birth, Lewisham. Representatives from family descendants, the Staffordshire regiment and their mascot, a young ram called Private Derby XXX11, several senior RAF Officers, including the RAF Queen's Colour Squadron, as well as the Chair of Governors from Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands, Dr John Craggs DL, were all in attendance, as a memorial stone was unveiled Speaking on behalf of Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School School, Dr Craggs said

“Although it was an honour to represent, together with colleague Alex Davis, Bishop Vesey's Grammar School at the Lewisham commemorative paving stone unveiling, it was also a privilege to play a small role in a ceremony which commemorated the outstanding bravery of former pupil Alan Jerrard. We must never forget the bravery, courage and sacrifice, of not just Alan Jerrard, but all others who fought for our freedom. If we want to understand today and plan for tomorrow, we need to know and remember what happened yesterday- our history.”

Living with Lady Macbeth/Macbeth

Thank you to all involved in this fabulous production: Phoebe Benson, Chester Powell, Remahn Beckford Gardner, Tom Froggatt, Jack Lees, Bethan Davage, Emily Hyde, Anna Short, Beth Brown,

Freddie Coleman, Sergert Jensema, Matthew Connell, Matthew Lakin, Edward Ballinger, Elliot Mattey, Matthew Whitehouse, Sam Kakosa, James Beech, Joseph Cronin, Fraser Burns, Luke Butcher, Joss Bird, Jay Cartwright, Jamie Barber, Ella McGrail, Simon Garrington and Rebekah O'Dowd.

School Captains

We are delighted to announce the following appointments to the positions of School Captains/Deputy School Captains:

School Captain: Lucy Windsor School Captain: Shoaib Sheraz Deputy School Captain: Archie Sansome Deputy School Captain: Henry Wade

Easter Egg Appeal

Thank you to all our generous students and families for donating Easter Eggs for the Children's Hospital.

Sri Lanka Cricket Tour

Good luck to all the boys on this exciting first for the school. They will be playing fixtures in Kandy, Kalutara, Colombo and Senanayake.

Pictured right are the boys in their new kit, along with our new sponsors.

DofE

Ninety boys in total are taking part in Bronze and Silver DofE expeditions over the next couple of days on Cannock Chase. Thank you to Mr Greenwood, Miss Langham, Mr Dobson and Mr Yates.

Chinese Exchange 2019

Whilst it may seem a long way ahead, we are seeking expressions of interest at this early stage to help with the planning and preparation for our China Exchange 2019. This is likely to be in a window somewhere between 23 June to 14 July 2019 when summer examinations have been completed. This exchange will be open for our current Years 9-12 (10-13 in 2018/19). Students will enjoy a unique opportunity to integrate into everyday life in China, as they will be staying with host families and will be attending lessons at the No.4 Middle School. There will also be opportunities for local excursions to places of cultural interest such as local temples, markets, woodlands and villages. As well as the opportunity to attend regular lessons, there will be a programme of activities within school focused on bringing Chinese and English students together on joint projects involving music, art, sports and drama. English students will be able to learn some spoken and written Mandarin, as well as helping Chinese students improve their English. Due to the likely popularity of the exchange, places will be allocated firstly to students hosting Chinese exchange students this summer, and then via a ‘lottery’ system in which names will be drawn at random, so as to ensure fairness. Only students in Years 9 to 12 (10-13 in 2018/19) may apply, as the students in No.4 Middle School are all from this age group. We will be matching students with host families. We are limiting the total number of places available to 25. More information on the exchange will be available in due course. There is a meeting on 19 April at 7pm in Room M1 for families to meet the China exchange team, and to hear more about this exciting opportunity.

If you require any further information, please contact Mr Buxton a.buxton@bishoveseys.bham.sch.uk

English Superstars

7G - George Howell, Aditya Mutukumar, 7R - Christian Hill, Rohan Aoulick, 7W - Coben Morgan, Amar Nahal, 7B- Hadi Rana, Thomas Hanlon, 7P- Toby Varley, Max Dalton, 8P – Daniel Bartlett, James Padley, 8W - Thomas Lam, Lucas Nix, 8R - Daniel George, Rajveer Chahan, 8B - Cian Burke, Joe Cronin, 8 G - Joel Archibald-Eades.

Chris Bradford Update

We will be having a skype call from Chris Bradford on Monday 23 April in the library. All boys who pre-ordered books will take part. They should have received their invitations - if they collected their books. Chris Bradford is re-booked for July 2020! Our next author visit is Monday 8 October 2018 - Bali Rai.

Safeguarding

We take safeguarding our students very seriously at BVGS. As a result, we have invested in Tootoot, an online platform that is available to students to email concerns and worries to the safeguarding team at school and get a response. If you want to find out more, please watch the clip found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBF_0XIGG-c&safe=active.

Social Media

WhatsApp is being used by some groups of parents, and we can see how beneficial this communication is. As a community, we believe in the importance of courtesy and consideration off-line and on-line so we would appreciate everyone taking care in the way they use social media. Thank you for your support.

Easter Revision Sessions

Department Exam Tier Dates Start time

End Time Rooms

No of students Staff

Art GCSE 09/04/2018 10:00 15:00 26 14 J Heer

Business GCSE 04/04/2018 10:00 12:30 30 3 A Reilly

DT GCSE 29/03/2018 10:00 15:00 FF8, 51 22 T Brown

DT GCSE 06/04/2018 10:00 15:00 FF8, 51 22 T Brown

DT GCSE 10/04/2018 10:00 15:00 FF8, 51 22 T Brown

Economics A-Level (Y12) 04/04/2018 13:00 15:00 30 30 A Reilly

Spanish A-Level 10/04/2018 10:00 15:00 19 14 A Slater

Francophonie Challenge

The results are in and the prize goes to Aditya Muthukumar in 7G for outstanding use of French. Massive congratulations to him he will receive certificate and prize next term. Félicitations Adi!

International Chemistry Olympiad 2018

Upper Sixth students enjoyed success in the 50th International Chemistry Olympiad 2018. Ben Clay and Tom Edwards (right) achieved a Gold award – a considerable achievement. Sarah Gavigan, Jacob Poxon, Daniel Leyva, Daniel McRae and Nickeal Sidhu achieved Silver. Hollie Hutchinson, Natalie Flanagan, Owen Hancox and Tanya Takavarasha achieved Bronze awards. Well done to all participants.

Biology Big Quiz

On Monday 26 March, 16 Year 10 boys took part in Birmingham University’s Big Biology Quiz. They enjoyed answering some tricky questions and attended a lecture on the wonderful world and diversity of microorganisms by Dr Andrew Lovering. Altogether, 430 students took part. Congratulations must go to Sanan Hashmi, Arsh Iqbal, Jack Lees and Omar Syed who finished third in the quiz.

Cross Country

The final results are now in for the Greater Birmingham Schools Cross Country League. Charley Bush comfortably won the Girls’ League, having remained undefeated for the whole season. She also finished an impressive twentieth overall (boys and girls combined). In the Boys’ League, Tom Parkes also emerged on top after a close battle throughout the season with John Richards of Adams Grammar, with Matthew McClafferty in an encouraging sixth place, in his first year at BVGS. Overall, the team came third, behind a very strong team from Adams Grammar and Old Swinford Hospital.

Girls Rugby

The girls' rugby team took part in their very first game on Tuesday. They scored five tries to King Edward's Stratford's eight.

Indoor Athletics

The Year 8 boys' indoor athletics team won the Sutton Coldfield Schools Indoor Athletics Competition in February and will now go to the Birmingham School Games.

Hockey

An excellent 2-0 win for the U’15 ‘a’ team on Monday against Bablake finished off a strong season, Matthew Hubbold scoring both goals. They currently stand on top of the Warwickshire league table having completed all their fixtures and await to see if Bablake and Princethorpe can overhaul them with their games in hand. Well done on an excellent season.

We say goodbye to Mr Devey the school hockey coach after four years of fantastic work. He has been instrumental in developing the high standards of hockey at the school, with consistent success now achieved at both County and Regional level. Far more boys are now playing club and representative hockey and this is testament to his tenure. We wish him luck in his new career and thanks again.

Merit Winners

Thomas MITCHELL 7B, Tadhg PARIZE 7G, Seth ALLEN 7P, Ben WHITE 7R, Stephen BOWMAN 7W, Fraser PRATT 7W, Jamal RAHMAN 8B, Jack WAKEFIELD 8G, Aleksander ROTTER 8P, Tighe CROOK 8R, Joshua FRANKS 8W, Jai SHARMA 9B, Jason GU 9G, Ishan MITRA 9G, Daniel TATTON 9G, Jun PARK 9G, James BEECH 9P, King-Jerry ADU 9R, Louis COLE 9W, Rohan BHOPAL 9W, Luke BARRIOS 10B, Charlie RICHARDS 10B, Stephen MIDDLEMASS 10R, Omar AHMED 10W, Matthew RICHARDSON 11B, Cornel BUCK-BEASON 11G, Nayan BHATIA 11W, James WARD 11W

Spring Concert - 24 April 2018 - 7:00pm

Tickets for the Spring Concert will be on sale after Easter in the School Club Office at £9 (£5 concessions).

Save the Date

Please book into your diaries the PA Ball on Friday 13 July. We had a planning meeting on it this week and it looks like it is going to be a fun event. Tickets on sale after Easter.

Have a great Easter break.

Dominic Robson John Craggs DL BSc PhD HonDUniv FCMA Headteacher Chairman of Governors

Book of the Week

Quote of the Week

Letters sent this week: Lost Property

Junior Sports Dinner

Dates for your Diary

Spring Term 2018

Wednesday 28 March Sri Lanka Cricket Tour leaves

Wednesday 28 March Students break up at 15:25

Wednesday 28 March Thursday 29 March

DofE Training

Thursday 29 March Staff Training Day : Y11 Trip to Oxford

Summer Term 2018

Monday 16 April Summer Term commences

Tuesday 24 April Spring Concert 7:00pm

Monday 7 May May Day Bank Holiday

Friday 11 May Year 7 and 8 Disco at BVGS (Please note change of date)

Friday 25 May Break up for half term

Monday 4 June Summer term recommences

Friday 22 June Year 7 and 8 Disco Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls

Friday 13 July BVGS PAC Ball at Moor Hall

Parents' Evenings 2018:

Wednesday 7 March - Year 9 16:00 - 19:00

Thursday 15 March - Year 10 16:00 - 19:00

Tuesday 27 March - Year 8 16:00 - 19:00

Thursday 19 April - Year 7 16:00 - 19:00

Term Dates can be found here on our website