END OF TERM E-LETTER – JULY 2015
Dear Parents, Carers and all those who make up the Camp Hill family
I’m looking out on green grass, warm sunshine and two members of games staff in shorts and tee-shirts. We’ve
had some lovely weather this term – none lovelier than for the Y8 residential in Anglesey. We were treated to
clear blue skies as we tried our hand (and foot) at so many challenging and fun activities: climbing, raft building,
sailing, abseiling, canoeing, kayaking, high ropes, low ropes. There were a couple of new ones – paddleboarding,
mountain biking and via ferrata. I’m a complete convert to paddleboarding, which must be the most inefficient
method of water-borne propulsion yet invented – wonderful if you don’t care where or when you arrive.
That’s just one of this term’s residential trips; in the last term, we’ve had the Robotics Competition (not that
exotic – Birmingham), the Y10 Battlefields Trip, the two trips to Germany (one to an engineering forum in
Frankfurt, where our Y10’s deliver a paper, mainly in English; and one for our Y11’s to go on work experience
placements, also in and around Frankfurt) and the rock climbing trip to the Pembrokeshire coast. Still to come is
the summer holiday trip to the Czech Republic.
I’m just flicking through some of the notices I’ve been given to read out in assemblies this term. 13 gold medals
in the Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad competition in the previous term, including Tom Else’s triumph in
coming top in the country. Music grade exams, including two grade 8 distinctions (Fazal Shah on flute, Andrew
Elliot on drums). Our Y8 chemistry team came 3rd in the Salters Chemistry Challenge at Birmingham University.
More chemistry: we won the national final of the Royal Society of Chemistry Top of the Bench competition; well
done to Paul Gardner, John Hayton, Alex Lee and Ibrahim Ezzeldin on achieving what we have never achieved
before. Oh, here’s an important one – the staff v boys football match. The staff tactic proved successful this
year: 1. Strengthen the team with three boys. 2. Pack the defense – it saves on energy running up and down the
pitch. 3. Score the only goal of the game via a teacher’s knee and a boy’s shot. It must have been so infuriating
for the 1st XI; all the more credit to them for never losing their sense of humour or sportsmanship. Not more
chemistry! In July we achieved another first for the school: two boys – Nathan McClelland and Muhammed Ubaid
Khan – won Roentgenium awards for coming in the top 0.7% of the country; their reward is a visit to St
Catherine’s College Cambridge for a three day Chemistry Camp (I’m guessing not remedial chemistry); 16 golds in
the same competition was also a school record. I promise this is the last chemistry highlight: we won the West
Midlands chemistry competition for Years 10 and 11, beating King Edward’s School into second place.
In April we welcomed the Lord Mayor of Birmingham to the school to present the winners of the Lord Mayor’s
6th Form Mega Quiz with their trophy; our two teams came first and second. The quiz has existed for three
years; we have won it twice, losing out to King Edward’s School last year.
Mr (history) Hill looks after not only our quizzers, but also our Historical Association Great Debaters. Well done to
Vikram Patel, whose speech on ‘What Does the Magna Carta Mean to Me?’ was the regional winner; he went to
Royal Holloway for the national final.
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Mr Hill also managed the school’s mock election. I was delighted, proud and – I’ll be honest – surprised at the
quality of the event. I knew the boys would include plenty of humour in their campaigns; I had not expected such
a rich blend of wit and serious content. Congratulations to Carl Lawrence whose humour was no surprise to us
all, but whose sensible research and knowledgeable discourse perhaps was; he won for Respect. Well done also
to Primo Agnello (Greens), Nathan McClelland (Labour), Siddarth Rao (Lib Dem), Faaris Zaki (Conservative) and
Matty Blaney (UKIP).
Every time you blink these days there’s a children’s author visiting, talking to our boys or a mixture of our boys
and some primary school visitors. Nick Arnold (Horrible Science) was the most recent; we’ve also enjoyed Sally
Gardner, David Massey and Erin Lange. Thank you to Aine Garvey, our librarian, for organising these.
I always love the Y8 Media Day, and this year’s was up there with the best: great newspaper, website, video
reports, radio report, television report. Thank you Mrs Parmar for organizing it so brilliantly, and thank yous are
also owed to the outside experts she ropes in and who give so generously of their knowledge and time.
I am starting to get carried away remembering so many highlights for the term: please read the details of these
and so many others in the newsletter. I will allow myself just one more: thank you Mr Southworth, Mr Palmer
and several other members of staff; thank you boys and girls, for the fascinating production ‘The Hollow Crown’.
Wonderful music – especially the recorder of Fazal Shah – superb presentation and a memorable diatribe on the
evils of tobacco from Oliver Garrett Evans will remain with me as fond memories of yet another great drama
show.
Congratulations to next year’s Head Boy and Deputies:
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Muhammed Ubaid Khan is Head Boy.
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Wesley Blackhurst,
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Alex Lane and
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Joe Malt are his Deputies.
We say goodbye to a number of members of staff, some to pastures new, some just out to pasture:
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Charlotte Whitehouse spent the last year with us training on the School Direct programme to be a
Computer Science teacher. We wish her every success at Colmer’s next year.
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Martin Campos joined us last year to cover Katie Schofield’s maternity leave from the chemistry
department. As well as teaching chemistry to our boys, Mr Campos has also offered enrichment classes in
geology – his specialist interest – to primary school children as part of our Widening Access programme. Our best
wishes go with him as he moves on to Edgbaston High School for Girls.
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Sarah Shelton has been with us for less than a year, but has already made such an impact as a history
teacher that we will sorely miss her calm and competent manner when she leaves to go with her husband to
Qatar, where her husband will start his role as Head of the secondary school at the Doha British School. Mrs
Shelton has already been given a job as a history teacher at the school. We wish her luck as she takes
responsibility for the Y13 history component of the International Baccalaureate – something she has never
taught!
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Sophie Hull leaves us after two years teaching biology and, in the last year, physics. In addition, Miss Hull
has been a Form Tutor, most recently in Y7, and a games teacher. She has taught rugby and cricket. Outside
school she is a club footballer, an ability she has brought into school by helping to coach the school footballers
and by taking part in two staff v boys football matches. At school level, she played for Warwickshire throughout
her secondary school days. She has supported many school trips, including the Y8 residential, where she has
taken charge of the biology aspect of the week. We wish her all the very best as she goes to Highclare School as a
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biology teacher; not surprisingly, she will also be teaching games, with particular responsibility for Key Stage 3
girls’ football.
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Hayley Norris leaves us after three years to teach humanities at the Bluecoats Academies Trust in
Nottingham. She has gained a reputation for great planning and imaginative use of resources that have been part
of the striking growth of the Religious Studies Department during her time at Camp Hill. She founded the
Philosophy Through Film Club for Years 10-13 and has taken on the Philosophy Club for younger pupils. She has
been a great supporter of school trips and visits, such as RS trips to Neasden Mandir, to Oxford for RS lectures, to
the Soho Gurdwara; she is a stalwart of the Y8 residential trip; she has helped on trips to the theatre with the
English Department, to Kenilworth Castle with Y7, to Paris, also with Y7. She has helped with costumes, sets,
make-up and hairdressing for school productions; she co-directed a junior drama production. She has also
supported staff as an active Union Rep. All the best to her in her new role.
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Tom Southall joined the school three years ago. He had particular responsibility to run a team throughout
the year, as well as his general role as a PE and games teacher. He has responded to that responsibility with
enthusiasm, energy, commitment and ability. He has run the Under 15 rugby team for three years, the Under 13
cricket team for three years, the Uner 13 basketball team for three years, the Under 14 basketball team for three
years; he has helped with the Under 12 rugby team and the Under 12 cricket team, with the athletics team
(taking particular responsibility for the Under 13’s); he initiated the Sports Leaders programme and has run that
for two years; he has been on three Y8 residential trips, two trips to the Czech Republic, a Y7 Paris trip and a ski
trip; he is helping on this year’s incoming Y7 summer camp; he has supported two senior rugby tours and three
junior rugby tours. He has been Beaufort’s Housemaster for two years – leading them to victory in the House
Championship in his first year. At the same time he has been studying for his Masters in Psychology and
Education, playing rugby for Bournville and occasionally cricket for Harborne. Extraordinary dedication. We
congratulate him on his engagement to Matilda Davis, whom he met when she was teaching art here; and we
congratulate him on his exciting job in Abu Dhabi, at Brighton College.
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Alison Higgins is retiring from her role as Administration Assistant in the Careers Department, a job she
has done so well for eleven years under both Terry Law and, latterly, Debbie White. She is looking forward to
seeing more of her young grandchild in Chester.
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Anne James has been with the school for 28 years. She had a part time role for the first six years; she had
responsibility to introduce economics to the school, while also teaching history. She was so successful in
introducing economics that she was needed to teach that full time. She also introduced business studies to the
curriculum. The economics department has been extraordinarily successful under her guidance. Many boys who
took economics as an AS, intending to drop it after a year, ended up loving the subject and not only completed
the full A Level but then went on to study the subject at university. Mrs James has an outstanding record of
producing economists of the highest ability who have proceeded to highly selective universities, such as Oxbridge
and the London School of Economics, to study economics.
Mrs James has been a quite extraordinarily valued 6th Form Tutor. Generations of boys have benefitted from her
kind and generous concern, her wise advice, her patient authority, and her superb knowledge of the admissions
process and its vagaries. Her role was formalised as Assistant Head of 6th Form ten years ago.
Mrs James will also be missed because of her work in relation to the school’s dramatic productions. Starting as
Front of House for West Side Story in 1988, she was soon drawn into responsibility for costumes (starting with
Oh! What a Lovely War) – a time-consuming task indeed. John Dinham then recruited her to his make-up team,
where she learnt that trade so well that she now passes on her knowledge to the next generation of make-up
artists, generally girls from next door.
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Mrs James has also been on the Concert Committee, which takes a coordinating role across all performances,
from school productions to musical concerts via carol services.
Boys will be unaware of just how much she will be missed by staff, too, in her role on the Common Room
Committee. A founder member of that committee, she has been a treasured source of wise counsel, a listening
ear and an encouraging tongue.
Anne goes with the very best of wishes from us all; she and her husband are free now to tow that caravan
through the roads of France in every season and weather. She starts by symbolically doing so in September – the
first time for 38 years that she will have been able to do that. I know that she is also looking forward to more
travel with her children as well.
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We’ve said proper goodbyes to them before, but I need to acknowledge them once more: after
retirement, Phil Carman and Bill Tranter have continued with regular games afternoon commitments for us.
Their work, based on many years of experience, has been a tremendous resource for the school. They sever their
last formal ties with us with an enormous expression of thanks from us all.
Similarly, Pat May, Terry Law, David MacDonald and Stuart Davenall have all been persuaded out of retirement at
various points during this year. Thank you! (We’ve still got your numbers.)
Somewhere amongst all this, some boys have been doing external exams. We wish them a wonderful rest now;
may they get the results they deserve or long for (whichever is the better). To them, in particular, and to all
members of the Camp Hill family in general, I wish a very restful and refreshing summer break.
Yours sincerely
Martin Garrod
Headmaster
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E-NEWSLETTER - JULY 2015
CHESS
Not much chess this term, as is usual in the summer. Indeed, there was even less than usual for the
summer term: I didn’t have much time to run Chess Club, for which apologies. Our two tutors, Bob
Walker and Alex Holowczak, continued their sessions for a few weeks at the beginning of term, and
I would like to thank them for all they have done. They’ll both be back next year: there are even
signs of life in the girls’ school, so we may be able to run a few joint sessions.
The regional Megafinal took place in Worcester one Sunday in May. Nine Camp Hill players took
part: the day’s excitement included dealing with extremely uncooperative car-park pay machines!
Ajay John finished as Worcestershire U14 Supremo, while in the Under 15 section, Camp Hill took
four of the top five places, with John Hayton finishing on 5.5/6 and the U15 Supremo, and Vamsi
Pratapa, Chris Marshall and Shammas Tabraiz, along with Ajay, all qualifying for the Northern
Gigafinal at Wright Robinson College, Manchester, on 12 July. At this tournament Chris and Ajay did
exceptionally well, each scoring 3.5/6 in exalted company and qualifying for the national Plate
competition.
Have a good summer and don’t forget that the horse moves in an L-shape!
A.M.R.
ENGLISH
In English this term we have celebrated the success of our debaters Tom Mehan and Sulaiman
Rahim at the regional heat of the Oxford Debating Competition at Sheldon Heath School. In the
face of strong opposition, the boys fought the good fight and were unlucky not to go through to the
next round.
The trip to see Death of Salesman performed in Stratford in the Spring was a great
opportunity for Year 10 to experience one of the 20th Century’s most important plays in the
spiritual home of British theatre, even if the subject matter was a little heavy for a sunny day in
Stratford. There will be more theatre trips in the new academic year, with Lord of the Flies
providing the new Year 10 boys with a dramatic insight into one of their new GCSE texts, and
something wicked this way coming a bit later on…
More recently, the school has celebrated its own dramatic successes, with Smike and
The Hollow Crown(the junior and senior productions respectively) both being very well received.
As always, Year 8 Media Day was impeccably organised by Mrs Parmar, with
assistance of teachers from around the school and outside professionals. The products of the day
were excellent and testament to the hard work of the boys.
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Warwick Castle Trip 2 July 2015
As a break from the old routine, and due to increased numbers of students, the decision was made
to move the annual castle trip for Year 7 ten miles from Kenilworth to Warwick. Was this a case of
the History Department dumbing down and caving into to commercialism or a welcome
opportunity to refresh and revitalise a staple part of the Middle Ages curriculum? The visit proved
to be a marked success with all four classes able to explore aspects of castle design and
development for defence and comfort over the centuries with the assistance of pencil, clipboard
and worksheet. We were helped by the weather which constantly threatened rain but failed to
deliver any more than a few spots. Highlights of the tour of the castle included the spectacular
rampart walk – from which the panoramas show just how useful a spot Warwick Castle is on,
commanding the locality through shock and awe. The Kingmaker and Time Tower exhibits were
also able to further our knowledge of the practice of medieval warfare, siegecraft and castle
design. A bonus to the day was the archery display next to the river, with gory details not for the
feint-hearted and the Horrible Histories “Wicked Warwick” production which kept the troops
tickled while chomping on their lunch. There was some disappointment that the trebuchet was not
firing, however we did see the evidence of its capability with the burnt-out shell of the Victorian
boathouse, victim of a rogue fireball launched some weeks earlier. Parents will be pleased to know
that access to the overpriced souvenir outlets was limited, in most part by their failure to put on
enough staff at the tills. Apologies for any families who still ended up with a couple of bits of wood
tied together and called a sword cluttering up their house for the price of a king’s ransom.
Students have followed up their visit with project work on castles which has included some model
making and minecraft simulations – hopefully to be on display in September.
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GNH
VDI
After waking up at a time far earlier than any ordinary school day, nine Year 10 GCSE German
students wearily made their way to Birmingham International Airport, on a chilly Thursday
morning. As everyone started to gather near the Lufthansa check-in gates, we were all rather
confused as Mr Jackson seemed to be 'missing'. This was the same Mr Jackson who, the day before,
had told us he would be there to wave at us if WE were lost. Parents said their goodbyes, though
there seemed to be a mix of happiness and tension in their faces, as they were leaving us for a four
day visit in Germany…………....on our own. By now, even Mrs Thomson was slightly alarmed at Mr
Jackson's absence, but we began the process of checking-in. Mr Jackson then arrived, albeit half an
hour late due to some mysterious delays - but as the good saying goes, "better late than never". As
we made our way to the plane, we were intrigued by Jas' remarkable stories as to what ‘dangerous
substances’ to take on a plane you could create using just what was available in Duty
Free……....rather alarming, if you ask me. Anyway, boarding went according to schedule and, before
we knew it, we were in the air at around 10am (on an Airbus A319 as Hassan 'expertly' guessed).
After a seemingly quick flight, we landed at Europe's third busiest airport, Frankfurt International,
and we were amazed as to the size and efficiency of the airport (in true German fashion). Mr
Jackson and Mrs Thomson guided us in to the crowded underground system of S-Bahn and U-Bahn,
which served as the quick transit from the airport to the region of Enkheim, where our host families
were waiting for us. Most of us were taken directly to our host families' houses to wind down after
the travel, yet Sam was stuck doing PE with his partner, so he joined in, though we never quite
managed to find out if he enjoyed or hated this! The evening was mostly a relaxed affair spent with
our families, with some being lucky enough to have a massive BBQ party or paid a visit to the local
ice cream parlour, where they had a delightful 'Spaghetti-Eis', which is a special ice cream which
looks like spaghetti – a bit quirky!
On the morning of the Friday, everyone gathered early at the Enkheim U-Bahn station, fuelled for
the big day by the seemingly universal German breakfast of toasted Nutella sandwiches. Mr
Jackson had learned his lesson from the day before, and, with Mrs Thomson's beady eye upon him,
hustled us onto the U-Bahn where final preparations for the day were made. The group of Firnaaz,
Muhammad and Nick were frantically crossing out large portions of their script, Jas was practising
unpronounceable Polish words and Ihsaam was frantically guarding his headphones from a bored
Liam. After about an hour, we arrived early (!) at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences,
where we were greeted by the Principal, Dr Bernhard Kup and told where and when we were
presenting. Hassan, Ihsaam and Liam's group seemed to have drawn the shortest of straws, as they
were not only presenting first, but also had to perform thrice, once more than the other groups.
This, however, proved fortunate as their first presentation was an unqualified disaster! Despite
Hassan having bragged about having his video in 'three different file formats', he was left
awkwardly standing next to a black screen of shame as various technical underlings strove to
remedy the issue. With true Camp Hill spirit, he then proceeded undaunted to deafen the entire
audience by shouting into the hypersensitive microphone! Luckily, these glitches were sorted out
for their other two presentations, so all was well. The other groups, having learned from this
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shambles, gave sterling performances, especially in the second presentations. Jas, Vish and
Ihsaam's group delivered a polished, professional-looking presentation and impressed the audience
with their frequent German intermissions. Firnaaz was engaging and informative, Nick's German
summary sounded almost native while Muhammad was ruthless in the judges’ Q&A session. After a
free lunch consisting of fish and chips (or an entire family size pizza in Liam's case), we were then
‘treated’ to a German 'mixed-media' event, which was a little confusing to say the least. Despite
our three years of learning the German language, we found the presentations of the prizes to be
almost completely unintelligible, and were about to doze off when we were rudely awakened by
some unwelcome news. We were not allowed to win prizes as our flights had been paid for by the
university!! We were not left entirely unrewarded however, as we came away with certificates,
notebooks and copies of 'Inflight Science' by Brian Clegg.
Overall, the day was a superb experience, but everyone had to have an early night due to the
extreme exhaustion caused by multiple presentations!
The next day, it was safe to say that all of us were still recovering from the day before, so most of
us just slept in during the morning. For the remainder of the day, most of the families decided to
take us out to the Frankfurt inner City, where a plethora of events awaited us. The Main Tower was
a popular attraction, as the towering observation deck 57 storeys high was a nice area to take
panoramic photos of the brilliant Frankfurt skyline. From the top, we could see many buildings
including the offices of banks such as UBS and Deutsche Bank, and even the airport on the other
side of Frankfurt. It definitely wasn't a place for those scared of heights! Others were also
fortunate enough to go inside the 'Zeil Shopping Centre' which featured some massive shops and
amazing architectural features, like a glass tunnel running down the entirety of the building. Even
though we all did different activities, we all had an amazing time and the perfect way to settle
down, we agreed, was a great dinner at our host families' houses.
Sunday was the day, however, to say goodbye to our families, who had so kindly offered us an
amazing time in the brilliant city that is Frankfurt. The morning was spent socialising with them and
talking to them about our past few days, but at noon it was time for them to drop us off at the UBahn station to begin the return journey to Birmingham. Getting to the airport was far quicker than
we expected, as the journey took less than half an hour, yet again proving just how efficient the
public transport system was. But the irony was that we found ourselves waiting an hour before we
could board our flight, as some logistical problems meant the A320 plane could not be loaded on
time (this time, Firnaaz being spot on with the plane spotting). Nevertheless, we kept ourselves
occupied by watching movies with Ihsaam, and, most importantly for Mr Jackson and Mrs
Thomson, by listening to Muhammad tell us intriguing stories of his escapades with airports and
security officers alike. Soon, we were on the plane and at 7pm, we landed back at Birmingham to
be greeted by our parents, or, in Firnaaz’s case, be held up for an hour due to his not owning an EU
passport!
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I think it's safe to say that it was sad to leave Germany behind, and four days was far too short a
time to explore the great country. On behalf of us all, we'd like to thank the German, Chemistry,
and DT departments for making this possible, as without their help we would have never been able
to prepare our presentations effectively, and would not have been able to go on the trip in the first
place. Special thanks should also go to Mrs Thomson and Mr Jackson, who shepherded us through
various hurdles and shared many laughs with us on the way.
Muhammad Ali, 10W and Firnaaz Mohideen, 10Z
German Work Experience
When leaving Birmingham for Frankfurt, we were hoping for better weather than the snow and
rain that our exchange partners had experienced when they visited us in February. The weather
certainly exceeded our expectations with temperatures reaching 40°C during our trip. We were
therefore very pleased to have the opportunity to visit Riedbad, which is an outdoor pool in
Enkheim, the area of Frankfurt in which we were staying.
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The work experience placements are organised through our partner school in Frankfurt, the Schule
am Ried. There is always a wide selection of placements to choose from. Paul Gardner worked at a
crane hire company, which gave him the opportunity to travel around Frankfurt. Philip Eburne
worked at a primary school, and Joe Meehan worked at a kindergarten. These placements were
very rewarding since they provided plenty of opportunities to practice and improve German skills.
Hitesh Verma and Ataa both did there work experience at the German red cross charity clothes
shop. Kushal Verma did his work experience at the ‘Schöne Aussicht’ hotel, My placement was at
the automotive engineering department at the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt. This
involved two days at the ‘August-Euler Flugplatz’ , an old airfield owned by the Technische
Universität Darmstadt, which is now used for car testing.
Travelling to a foreign country and staying with an exchange family can be daunting however both
our host families and work experience mentors were very friendly and welcoming. We are also very
grateful that our host families organised fantastic excursions for us, including to the Rhein valley,
and let us try very tasty traditional German foods.
I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone in year 11 or 12 since it is very enjoyable, the
weather is fantastic and the food is very tasty.
Many thanks to our host families for welcoming us into their homes, as well as to Mrs Wells and
Mrs Thomson, for organising the trip
Fraser Doshi-Keeble
Languages Day:
‘Languages Day’ was something the school chose to do yet again this year, following on from its
remarkable success last year. The thought of having a whole half-day away from timetable was
quite pleasing to the Year 10 students and so, we ‘quietly’ commenced proceedings by moving to
the Sports Hall. There, two students from the University of Nottingham provided us with an
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engaging talk about the benefits of choosing languages for further study at A-Level, or even the
more daunting prospect of taking one at University. It was quite astonishing to see that when asked
about the possibility of choosing a language at A-Level, less than a fifth of the cohort stood up.
Even more remarkable than this, when enquiring as to what courses the students wished to do at
University, there was a plethora of responses ranging from law, engineering and of
course...medicine, yet very few for a language course. From then onwards, they proceeded to
dispel the myths surrounding the topics and why it would be an excellent choice to make. Perhaps
one of the best things we learned was that although you need not select a single language course
at University, it is possible to complete a mixed course where a main subject could be combined
with a language such as French or German. The talk was extremely enjoyable and we were very
thankful for the input the two people provided.
Following this, the year separated into different groups, all set a teacher and another factor - East
or West. Soon, we were briefed on our task. The East group would play the scenario that they were
in possession of a valuable artefact sacred to their culture. The West group would play the scenario
of ambassadors from their country with the desire to purchase the item to add to the national
museum - no matter what the cost. At this point, while excited by the task, some students were
intrigued to see how the task would play out.
After some time preparing, the West groups presented their pitch to the East, and thus
commenced a series of responses which made us truly realise what had been told in the earlier
talk. Both groups had been briefed differently in accordance with their culture and beliefs. The
West groups did not hold money as a barrier, willing to use any amount to ensure collection of the
item. However, the East groups’ ideals were different, and they did not consider money to even be
a factor worth talking about - the artefact was more important to their culture than money was.
Here, students learned that countries are very unique. Something that is acceptable or encouraged
in one place, could be considered rude in another...not to mention the variety in day to day
behaviour. Students realised that learning a language - especially at a more intermediate stage allows us not only to be able to easily communicate with people from other cultures, but also
understand them. This is true especially with the possibilities of exciting placements in other
countries, which can be pursued for one’s education or career.
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All in all, at the end of the day, it’s safe to say that the possibility of selecting a language for further
study (be it French, German, or any other) seemed more probable for many of us. Benefits of
taking languages were shown to students that many had not even previously considered. The
intriguing day certainly left us with many more answers, and we are sure that this left a lasting
impression on many students.
Firnaaz Mohideen and Ryandeep Sidhu
Runner ducks at Camp Hill
This year, the Biology Club were given six Indonesian runner duck eggs to hatch, care and feed.
On the 1st of May, the eggs were placed in a special incubator, where they were to be monitored
and warmed for 28 days at 37.2 degrees. Every week, Biology Club would gather and take a peek
inside the eggs with a special torch, and each week we would see something new. However it was
unlikely that all the eggs would hatch.
When it came to half term, the ducks were given to Mrs Mitchell, and on the 28th of May, four out
of the six eggs hatched, which was more than anyone expected. These four ducks, two male and
two female, were quickly given names. The males became ‘Quackers’ and ‘Meep’, and the females
became ‘Zachary Quack’ and ‘Otto’. Otto was the last to be hatched and was named after a
Chancellor of Germany, ‘Otto von Bismarck’. The ducks started off in there cage in the Biology lab,
but soon they started to grow.
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The ducks went on many parades, up and down the science corridor, marching to Prussian war
music, as well as having fun in their paddling pool. Once the gland in there tail started creating the
oil that would make the ducks water proof, they started splashing about, occasionally diving to
collect their favourite food: peas.
By the end of June, they were starting to live and sleep outside in their pen, allowing them plenty
of exercise and room. In the summer holiday, they will be given to Heidi, one of the dinner ladies,
who will care for them in her garden for the rest of their lives
Sam Gray 7K
Charity
Congratulations to the pupils of Year 7 who raised £140 during the summer term. 7M and 7K
pleased the hungry appetites of the Camp Hill Boys and staff by baking a wonderful array of cakes,
selling out in record time. Whilst 7J’s Rugby Conversion Challenge saw both Mr Garrod and Mr
Caves attempt to grasp victory from the year 7s but unfortunately fell short of the standard. All
proceeds were donated to both Water Aid and the Nepal Earthquake disaster. Well done to
everyone who took part.
SH
Mock Election 2015
During the early summer term, the school was gripped in election fever as six candidates sought to
be returned as representative for Camp Hill Boys in our mock election. In order to allow all year
groups to participate, the date of the election was brought forward to 30 April. The process
involved the selection of candidates for the six parties represented in our local constituency
(Birmingham Hall Green) and for each of these parties to launch and sustain a campaign covering
media, meetings and debates. The pupils selected to represent the parties were: Faaris Zaki
(Conservative), Nathan McClelland (Labour), Carl Lawrence (Respect), Matty Blayney (UKIP), Primo
Agnello (Green) and Siddarth Rao (Liberal Democrat).
The highlight of the campaign was the lunchtime debate in which all parties were able to field
questions from the floor and challenges from their rivals. The eloquence and conviction shown by
each candidate was a joy to behold – they even showed that they understood and represented
their party’s manifesto commitments. The poster campaign was conducted in good humour and
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able to get messages across to the wider school public. All parties even produced a short Party
Election Broadcast, each of which was shown in assembly to the whole school and, in the case of
three, to the visiting Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Cllr Shafique Shah.
Polling Day came and a huge thank you has to go out to the polling clerks and tellers who ensured
that the election was run smoothly and the results could be counted and verified in a very short
time. Elections are a means to show how personality and policy together can determine the fate of
nations, however the Camp Hill result failed to provide any guidance to the national swing in
polling one week later. The result was as follows: Carl Lawrence (Respect) 155 votes, Faaris Zaki
(Conservative) 118 votes, Nathan McClelland (Labour) 77 votes, Siddarth Rao (Liberal Democrats)
50 votes, Matty Blayney (UKIP) 29 votes and Primo Agnello (Green) 26 votes. Many thanks, not just
to the candidates, but to their teams of supporters for making democracy triumph above all else.
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The election took place in the same week as the Nepal earthquake, we were able to raise £900 for
the DEC Nepal Appeal in collection buckets at the polling station – many thanks to all who made
such a generous donation.
GNH
National Biology Challenge 2015
Earlier in the year, all Year 9 and 10 students were entered for the national Biology Challenge. This
is an online competition with questions set on GCSE Biology topics. The Biology Challenge also
rewards those students whose knowledge of the subject has been increased by reading books and
magazines, watching natural history programmes and taking notice of the news media for items of
biological interest. This year, just over 35,000 students from 557 schools took part.
Joshua Humphries was invited to a special ceremony in London as he scored one of the highest
marks in the whole country. Ihsaam Hamid was only 3% behind Joshua and did exceptionally well.
Our third highest scorer was Ossama Chihani, a Year 9 student who beat everyone else in Year 9
and 10. We won 18 gold certificates (for students in the top 5% of the country), 33 silver (top 15%
nationally) and 54 bronze (top 30% nationally). In addition, 39 students were highly commended
and 18 commended for their efforts.
Well done to all students who took part, and especially to those who gained an award.
Our winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates are as follows:
Gold
Joshua Humphries
Silver:
Thomas Mansfield
Bronze:
Aditya Dhiran
Ihsaam Hamid
Ossama Chihani
Vamsi Pratapa
George Hynes
Alex Lee
Talhah Chaudri
Aiman Ishaq
Ahmed Syed
Will Lyons
Zeeb Khan
Pranav Thatipamula Victor Kimani
Faraan Cheema
Matthew Blayney
Sreekar Somayajula
Rohan Aggarwal
John Hayton
Robert Hillier
Asad Saleem
Alexander Byrne
Uwais Hafizal
Siddharth Sharma
Xiang Yan
Craig Stewart
Akshat Sinha
Hamza Arshad
Rohan Ram
Nikesh Visana
Gurvinder
Bhohie
Abbas Mirza
Dhyan Naik
Tahmid Islam
Ryandeep Sidhu
Elliott Weaver
Rohan Sharma
Husman Ahmed
Ibrahim Hameed Ali
Khan Khattak
Daniel Higgins
Zain Nawaz
Sumit Sahoo
Firnaaz Mohideen
Muhammad Ali
Daniel Blyth
Daniel Hill
Jan Rudzki
Miles Smith
Zulfikar Khan
Primo Agnello
Jake Tucker
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Bronze:
Thomas Isaac
Bronze
Sam
Stansfield
Daniel Taylor
Bahawal Ali
Stephen
Bromage
Chaitan
Mohr
Varshith
Dasari
Safee Saleem
Daniel Cole
Rizwan
Qureshi
Yusuf Khan
Adam
Ahmed
Harry Wells
Alexander
Prins
Jamie John
Rajvir Manku
Prasnath Sathish Khurram
Omar
Monim Wains
Daniel Charlesworth
Jithu Burri
Gregory Black
Ryan Chung
Joel Clark
Rohan Jobanputra
Leo Chanda
Shrey Bohra
Alfie Green
Hamza Qureshi
Naveen
Naguleswaran
Ajay John
Alex Millicheap
Ed Dempsey
Abaan Butt
Seniru
Witharanage
Henry
Campos
Hasib Rajput
Maths Matters Summer 2015
The Intermediate Maths Challenge was the challenge of last term, but we had to wait until this
term for the results of the two follow-on rounds, the Intermediate Kangaroo and the Intermediate
Olympiads. 47 boys in Years 9-11 took the Kangaroo, and six got Merits: Muhammad Ali, Youcef
Barigou, Daniel Cole, Rohan Jobanputra, Vamsi Pratapa and Ishmael Silvestro. In the Olympiads,
Alex Byrne, Paul Gardner, John Hayton, Puney Jain, Stephen Mander, Jas Rudzki and Monim Wains
all got Merits; Robert Hillier got a Distinction, while Anthony Lim and Sam Stansfield got
Distinctions, Medals and Prizes. Some of these names will reoccur below.
The Junior Maths Challenge was the challenge of this term. As always, the organisation was
handled faultlessly by Mr Jack, and when the results arrived, we were very pleased. The boys were
awarded 74 gold certificates, 81 silvers, and 37 bronzes; 5 qualified for the Junior Mathematical
Olympiad, and 29 for the new Junior Kangaroo, which both took place in June. The Kangaroo is
taken by students all over Europe: the top 5,000 students (from 1,463 schools) were invited to take
part, and the top 25% get Merits. 11 of our boys achieved Merits: Miles Balderson, Qiyuan Chen,
Judah Daniels, Ross Evans, Muaaz Ghafoor, Kevin Mathew, Sukhjote Sotal, Hao Yang, William Yang
and Leon Zhang. Hao got the highest score with an astonishing 129/135. Meanwhile, Proshanto
Chanda, Xue Bang Chen, Punith Premachandra, Saksham Shah and Kevin Xu had qualified for the
Olympiad, and all did very well: Proshanto, Punith and Kevin got Merits, and Xue Bang and Saksham
got Distinctions, with Xue Bang’s performance good enough to win him a bronze medal, placing
him in the top 210 in the country. Well done to all!
After the excitement of the Junior Challenge, the General Election, and the start of study leave for
our exam candidates (and the end of study leave, for Year 12) it was time for the next Team
Challenge final. This time a team of four Year 8s and Year 9s, Robert Hillier, Neal Pankhania, Sam
Stansfield and the aforementioned Hao Yang, accompanied Mr Thompson on a luxury train ride to
London to participate in the Team Challenge Final, along with 87 other school teams. The
challenges were rigorous, but Mr Thompson’s training regime had been equally rigorous, and we
were delighted when the team finished seventh in the country and highest in the West Midlands
region (thereby beating A.N.Other school in Edgbaston). Even better than this, their poster, on
Colouring in Mathematics, came third in the country. This was an outstanding achievement and
thanks and praise is due to the team and to Mr Thompson for training and taking them.
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On Sports Day, we managed to fit in yet another team competition, the South Area Network
Challenge for Year 9 at King’s Norton Girls’ School. The team consisted of Daniel Cole, Alfie Green,
Robert Hillier, Ajay John, James Mander and Rohan Jobanputra who stood in at the last minute for
the ailing Sam Stansfield. Last year we came second to a certain girls’ school not too far away, so
we attempted to distract them with some of Mr Watkins’ driving. This worked perfectly and we
won by rather a long way. Once again many thanks are due to Mr Thompson for his rigorous
(there’s that word again) training regime!
Before closing, well done to these boys whose work in the summer exams showed a tremendous
improvement this year: John Byrne and Luqmaan Raschid in Year 8, Chaitan Mohr and Rhys Rogers
in Year 9, and Thomas Isaac and Hasnain Sultan in Year 10. You see, it’s not just the team members
and Olympiad people that get a mention!
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And so the school year comes to an end. It’s not been an easy one, and I would like to thank the
whole department for the support they have given me. I would also like to say a specially big thank
you to Mr Mohammed Azam, who stepped into the breach after Miss Hunt had to leave us and
served for two terms as an outstanding member of the department; his classes all appreciated his
humour and thoroughness. Next term we have six extra periods a fortnight of maths to teach to
our extra Year 8, and the new (9-1) GCSE to look forward to for Year 10. I’ll leave you with this
problem for the summer: you have a collection of positive integers which add up to 40. Find which
collection has the largest product.
A.M.R.
MUSIC
The summer term is always busy, with public examinations, internal examinations and many
trips and sporting events. Even so, the Music Department has managed to keep its busy
programme of events going.
We returned to school to find an excellent set of Associated Board and Trinity Board ‘grade’
results from the Easter sessions waiting for us. Once again we are very pleased that many
passed with a ‘merit’ or ‘distinction’.
Forename
Surname
Instrument
Joseph
Shalabi
Guitar
1
Harry
Balfe
Guitar
2
Jake
Holloway
Guitar
2
Salahudeen
Ayub
Saxophone
2
Fintan
Hogan
Bassoon
2
Merit
Sanjay
Rajput
Piano
2
Merit
James
Devine
Violin
3
Thomas
Ransbotyn
Oboe
3
Joshua
Birch
Trumpet
3
Merit
Jaiden
Lall
Guitar
3
Merit
James
Thomas
Violin
3
Merit
Dave
Rodrigues
Clarinet
3
Merit
Kevin
Mathew
Oboe
3
Distinction
Soumitra
Chakravarti
Guitar
4
Noah
Lloyd
Violin
4
Merit
Abhinash
Nirantharakumar
Euphonium
4
Merit
Rohan
Kaya
Bassoon
5
Merit
Yuhan
Guo
Tuba
5
Merit
Primo
Agnello
Clarinet
5
Distinction
Madhav
Ramesh
Oboe
6
Faraan
Cheema
Jazz Saxophone
6
Merit
Isara
Mahalekam
Flute
6
Merit
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Grade
Result
Merit
Ravi
Bange
Clarinet
6
Merit
Sanchudaan
Murugesu
Violin
6
Merit
Thomas
Keast
Rock & Pop Drums
6
Distinction
Gaspard
Bulso
Trumpet
7
Fraser
Doshi Keeble
Euphonium
7
Merit
Kushal
Varma
Flute
7
Merit
William
Tetlow
Euphonium
7
Distinction
Samuel
England
Trombone
8
Thomas
Else
Orchestral Percussion
8
Merit
Syed Fazal
Shah
Flute
8
Distinction
Andrew
Elliot
Drums
8
Distinction
Well done to the boys who reach ‘grade 8’, and congratulations to the two who gained
‘distinctions’.
Special mention must be made of Harry Atkinson who took his grade 8 Double Bass exam
last year. In his Grade 8 he was awarded 146 out of 150 marks, and because of this the
Associated Board have awarded him with one of their ‘Silver Awards’. The certificate reads:
“ABRSM Silver Award as a result of attaining one of the highest marks in Grade 8 in 2014”.
He also received a cheque for £150 to use to further his musical studies, which he was very
pleased about! Harry is again a member of the National Youth Orchestra this year.
We were also very pleased with the large number of pupils who have been accepted into
the Birmingham Music Service Orchestras, Bands and other ensembles. In addition to the
many pupils who are already playing for the Music Service, these boys found out that they
were successful in gaining a place:
Name
Instrument
Music Service Ensemble
Fazal
Shah
Flute
Birmingham Schools' Symphony Orchestra
Thomas
Isaac
Violin
Birmingham Schools' Symphony Orchestra
Alec
Lee
Violin
Birmingham Schools' Symphony Orchestra
Albert
Chang
Violin
Birmingham Schools' Concert Orchestra
Rohan
Jobanputra
Violin
Birmingham Schools' Concert Orchestra
Ravi
Bange
Clarinet
Birmingham Schools' Wind Orchestra
Isara
Mahalekam
Flute
Birmingham Schools' Wind Orchestra
Kushal
Varma
Flute
Birmingham Schools' Wind Orchestra
Max
Johnson
Trumpet
Birmingham Schools' Wind Orchestra
George
Hynes
Trumpet
Birmingham Schools' Wind Orchestra
Primo
Agnello
Clarinet
Birmingham Schools' Concert Band
Varshith
Dasari
Clarinet
Birmingham Schools' Concert Band
Mohammad
Farooq
Clarinet
Birmingham Schools' Concert Band
Craig
Stewart
Clarinet
Birmingham Schools' Concert Band
Abhinash
Nirantharakumar
Euphonium
Birmingham Schools' Concert Band
Yuhan
Guo
Tuba
Birmingham Schools' Concert Band
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Joseph
Meehan
Clarinet
Birmingham Schools' Concert Band
Alexander
Simpson
Tenor Horn
Birmingham Schools' Concert Brass Band
Dave
Rodriges
Birmingham Schools' Training Wind Orchestra
Bradley
Williams
Clarinet
Double
Bass
Jamie
Devine
Violin
Birmingham Schools' String Sinfonia
Kevin
Xu
Violin
Birmingham Schools' String Sinfonia
Kevin
Matthew
Recorder
Birmingham Schools' Recorder Sinfonia
Birmingham Schools' String Sinfonia
In the last week of term many of these boys will be performing in the Adrian Boult Hall or
Symphony Hall as part of the Music Service ‘Gala Concerts’.
Early in term we hosted AS and A2 recitals. AS pupils perform about three pieces, and often
use ‘grade’ pieces that they have also performed elsewhere. At A2 the performances are
more taxing, and pupils are expected to present a recital of about 12 – 15 minutes all in one
style. After the recital there is also an in depth viva voce discussing interpretations of the
music based on the pupils’ listening and research. This year we had some particularly
diverse recital themes: Spanish influenced music for violin, Classical concerti for Double Bass
and 80s funk for Drum Kit!
Before the Year 11, 12 and 13 pupils go on study leave we hold our Senior Concert. This is
an opportunity for our best school musicians to perform, and is a chance for us to say
‘goodbye and thank you’ to our musical Year 13 pupils before they leave us. We were
pleased to have a good audience, and the standard of the music was high. There were a
number of excellent Chamber Music items, including String Quartets and Wind Ensembles,
plus slightly larger ensembles such as Cello Ensemble and Flute Choir. Saxophone Ensemble
performed some excellent close harmony arrangements, one of which was by Mr John
Meadows, their conductor, and Guitar Ensemble played two atmospheric pieces inspired by
Spain. Concert Band was on form in Discovery 1492 and then The Symphonic Beatles, and
Concert Orchestra was enjoyed by all playing Theme from The Big Country and the James
Bond hit For your eyes only. Towards the end of the concert we had the much anticipated,
now traditional, ‘leavers’ items’. Again the leavers had done well, preparing songs for their
last concert. They much enjoyed embarrassing Ms Hawthorne and I, making us sing a duet
from the Disney film Frozen, re-titled “music is so much more”. We did our best! After
these items, Swing Band brought the concert to a rousing finish, ably directed by Richard
English who will be studying music at Oxford next year.
We have been delighted to have Daniel Nock in school with us for the past term, teaching
classes as part of his PGCE in music with Birmingham City University. Daniel did very well,
and we are delighted that at Half Term he found out that he had passed his PGCE. Our best
wishes go with him for next year.
The last big joint concert of the year is the Summer Soirée. This is a chance for our Junior
and Intermediate musicians to perform. Held in the boys’ Hall, we were delighted to get
great support from parents, so much, in fact, that the hall was completely full and pupils
were sitting on seats out in the school lobby! It was a very good evening of music making.
The Intermediate Orchestra began the evening, and there was some very good playing in an
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effective arrangement of The Firebird by Stravinsky. Many good chamber groups followed,
which included Brass Ensemble, Clarinet Ensemble, Guitar Ensemble and Tabla Ensemble.
Of particular note were two solo items: Qiyuan Chen (7S) gave a most sensitive
performance of Schubert’s Impromptu No 3 for piano, and Jamie Wen (7J) a bold
performance of Brahm’s Hungarian Dance for violin. The evening closed with a tight and
exciting version of Flashdance – what a feeling! played by the Wind Band. A full evening of
music, but we finished in good time at 8.55pm!
Our Year 10 GCSE group have produced some excellent ensembles this year, and have
performed at a number of events both in and out of school. This term they played a jazz
arrangement of ‘Dem Bones’ at Timberley Academy Graduation Ceremony which was held
in our Hall. The Headmistress of the Junior School complimented the boys on their lively
and spirited arrangement.
Unusually, our Senior Musical was not in the Spring Term this year, but had been arranged
for the penultimate week of the summer term. The piece was called ‘The Hollow Crown’
and was an entertainment by and about the kings and queens of England. With this
historical theme, it was fitting to have period instruments. So it was that we had a small
group of versatile musicians to sing and play in amongst the readings. Fazal Shah gave real
class to the production with some wonderfully subtle playing on recorders and flute. Tom
Meehan was a dramatic and effective solo Baritone and played stirring Trombone fanfares.
Ruth Owens’ voice suited the music well, and she sang with a really good sense of the
words, and also played violin. Performed over three evenings, it was a most effective and
moving evening’s drama.
In the last week of term we have two Presentation Evenings, one for Years 7 and 8, and one
for Years 9 and 10. A feature of the evenings is a musical performance by one of our best
musicians from each year group. William Yang (7M) got us off to a good start with a fine
performance of Rhapsody No 2 in G minor by Brahms. This was followed by a lively and
characterful rendition of Rumores de la Caleto by Albéniz played by Yuhan Guo (8M). The
Year 9 contribution was a stylish clarinet Minuet and Trio by Mozart played by Oliver
Maclean (9S), and the evening was rounded off with a spirited jazz arrangement of Swing
low, sweet chariot played by the Year 10 GCSE Jazz Ensemble.
We are very keen to keep up with the news of our musical Old Boys. Jamie Phillips’ success
as Assistant conductor of the Hallé Orchestra has led to him being appointed Associate
conductor for the 2015/6 season. Ross Garrod and Ed Beesley continue to thrive as
professional percussionists, and their Percussion Duo ‘Cymbiotic’ recently performed at The
Highbury. For those with an interest in our musical Old Boys, we plan to put further details,
pictures and links on the CHB Alumni website. I have also had news that Joss Brookes who
studied at the Royal Northern College of Music after leaving Camp Hill, will be playing with
the CBSO in their televised concert at The Proms on Sunday 19 July.
SFP
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Camp Hill Schools Primary Schools Conference
On Polling Day, 7 May, we welcomed teachers from schools all over the city to the Camp Hill site to
provide information and support in helping higher ability students and access to schools within the
Foundation. Fourteen teachers from nine different schools were able to attend, some of whom
have worked closely with our schools before and others who are new and seeking to forge closer
links.
The day started with a briefing about the role of Widening Access within the King Edward's
Foundation and the process of familiarisation. This was followed by presentations about our online
provision through FROG and the opportunities for environmental science learning through the new
outdoor classroom and pond area on the Camp Hill site.
This was followed by workshops exploring mathematical provision to stretch and challenge able
students from Mr Rogers, Head of Mathematics at Camp Hill Boys and a session in our Library
discussing reading and research skills with Ms Garvey, our librarian and Mr Wilkins, from the
English Department.
The day was completed in meeting Year 7 pupils from both Camp Hill Boys and Girls who were able
to display the range of work and activities that they had been involved in across subject areas, our
guests were able to question the pupils on the transition to secondary school and what they enjoy
about their education.
It was a successful first conference and feedback from the delegates was extremely positive,
particularly opportunities to meet together and share good practice and to take away ideas which
can be implemented in the classroom. We hope to repeat the event in the following school year.
Primary Schools Maths Team Tournament
On 15 April, 12 teams of four students from seven different schools across the city converged on
the main hall at Camp Hill Boys to take part in a team tournament organised by the UK Maths
Trust. It is a complement to the individual challenges which take place in the autumn term. The
tournament allowed students to show off their mathematical flexibility through a series of
challenges which required speed, accuracy and teamwork. The first round was a group round in
which teams had to decide on strategies of how to answer the questions - work on them together
or split them up - in order to get the most points. This was followed by a speed round in which
teams would struggle to get all the questions done and, finally, a relay round where pupils had to
run around to pick up new clues once they had answered the questions. In what proved to be a
hectic and enjoyable afternoon, Hillstone Primary and Severne Team A emerged as the joint
winners. Congratulations to them and I hope they can come and defend their crown next year.
King Edwards Familiarisation Programme
During June, pupils from nearly 30 primary schools from across the city came to participate in the
King Edward’s Foundation Familiarisation programme. This was the second year of the programme
which has been designed to encourage able students from diverse economic and social
backgrounds to apply, and hopefully succeed, in achieving places at our schools. As a change from
last year, one hundred boys came to the sessions hosted by us with the girls going next door.
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Overall, primary pupils spent five sessions at Camp Hill Boys. Pupils and their parents were given a
chance to look around the school and to talk with staff and our students, as well as being given
information and support towards the entrance examination in September. The experience was
met with excitement and enthusiasm from the pupils and teachers and parents also have valued
the information and support provided.
GNH
Nick Arnold visit – 9/1/15
As part of the Foundation’s Widening Access programme, we were offered the wonderful
opportunity of hosting the author of the Horrible Science series, Nick Arnold. Pupils from local
primary schools were invited to come and join our year 7s for a madcap, yet informative
presentation. Pupils were invited onstage to take part in Nick’s experiments and were rewarded
for their bravery with a unique badge. Nick stayed around for hours afterwards to sign copies of his
books and answer individual questions from the children. We all left the presentation energised
and enthused by Nick and we hope to have him back at Camp Hill Boys in the near future.
AG
Stan Lee Excelsior Award trip 1/7/15
For the last few months a dedicated group of comic enthusiasts have been shadowing the Stan Lee
Excelsior Awards, reading all eight of the shortlisted graphic novels and meeting regularly in the
library to discuss their favourites. Pupils from years 7 to 11 took part and made sure to vote for
their favourites.
The award was created in 2011 by fellow librarian and comics expert, Paul Register. He wanted to
do something to highlight the importance of graphic novels in encouraging reading for pleasure,
engaging with reluctant readers and developing literacy skills. He even got permission from Stan
himself to use his name! Each year Paul picks the best eight graphic novels and manga and creates
a wonderful range of related resources for schools to use. The popularity of the award has grown
each year and now more than 200 secondary schools take part.
To celebrate the day the winning graphic novel was announced, Dan Wilkins and I took the group of
21 pupils to a private screening of The Avengers: Age of Ultron and then on to Nostalgia and
Comics to do a comic and manga stock pick for the school. Staff and pupils alike were left a little
23
dazed and overwhelmed by the amount of beautifully illustrated graphic novels on offer and
struggled to choose! We eventually made our selections and headed back to school for a fiendishly
difficult Marvel Universe quiz.
Due to the popularity of the award in the school the library will now run a year round comic book
club. Richard Parkinson and Dan Wilkins are also hoping to bring together Camp Hill Boys of all
ages who love comics, are good at drawing and or writing to create their own graphic novel.
Excelsior!
AG
HOUSE REPORTS
Beaufort
The Beaufort boys have had an enjoyable final term of the year, although results within the House
Championship haven’t always gone the way they will have liked.
In the Tennis competition some good performances from the Seniors (Tim Naylor and James
Ternent) and the juniors (Madhav Manoj and Aadam Zafar) put Beaufort in a very strong position.
In the intermediate event Henry Belai and Garen Boora (who was selected for the team at the 11th
hour following a promise that he would guide the House to Tennis glory) unfortunately lost all of
their matches leaving Beaufort in 3rd place overall in the Tennis Championship.
The cricket saw some fantastic performances, but very narrow losses in key matches again cost the
House. The year 8s were brilliant in their competition with Vignesh Venkat, Sam Hope, Ryan Malhi,
Aadam Zafar and Madhav Manoj all inspirational as they cruised to three victories. The seniors
unfortunately couldn’t manage a win, whereas the intermediates and juniors did win one match
each, but both came agonisingly close to a second victory which would have been of great
importance. Awais Akram performed well for the intermediate team, whereas Amar Jandu,
Hamzah Iqbal and Josh Malhi were key players for the year 7s. The overall standings saw Beaufort
in 4th place, just two points (one win) behind 2nd place).
24
The final event of the year was Sports Day. The year 7s and year 12s both won their age group
categories after some exceptional performances. The year 7s in particular stormed to victory after
winning 9 different events and setting the best score of the day for any one year group. Richard
Amoshe and Ross Evans shared the year 7 Victor Ludorum, whereas Wesley Blackhurst won this
trophy in Year 12. Unfortunately the year 8, 9 and 10 teams couldn’t quite live up to these high
standards and again Beaufort finished in fourth place in the overall Athletics standards. However
the boys gave their all and can be commended for their efforts on the day.
Well done to all of the boys who have represented the House over the past couple of years, it has
been a pleasure to see your pride, passion and enthusiasm in representing Beaufort and I will
certainly look back fondly on my time as Housemaster. Good luck to Mr O’ Malley next year as he
takes on the role and looks to lead Beaufort back to glory!
TMS
Howard
Things Can Only Get Better. This was the anthem that powered Labour to their 1997 landslide
victory. The song was, in part, performed by Professor Brian Cox as part of the band D:Ream who
has since gone on to better and more noble things, usually involving celestial bodies and a BBC film
crew. So would Howard finish this disappointing year spiraling further toward a black hole (no, I do
not mean the Sixth Form Common Room) or end the year with a Champagne Supernova
performance? Having only won the Quiz and Chess thus far in 2014-15, it would always be a
challenge to stay in the slipstream of the other houses, but our ambitions were still galactic. The
term started disappointingly with dwarf planet performances in the table tennis and senior tennis,
the cricket fared better but they were to be disappointed in coming up against Seymour firing on all
rocket boosters. The exam hiatus gave us time to regather our thoughts and move towards the gas
giant status we were capable of. First evidence of this came in the athletics standards where
impressive results put us in prime position, yet still with others in our gravitational pull, experiences
of Sports Days past have been very good at bringing our stellar ambitions back down to earth.
Good performances in the intermediate and junior tennis (thanks to the star performers Chris
Marshall, Danny Blyth, Sai Potluri and Luke Hemmings) saw us win both sections to finish a
creditable second overall. In the cricket, all sides contributed well, especially in Year 7 where we
finished as joint winners, however Beaufort provided a red spot on our performance in Year 8
resulting in us finishing joint second overall. This left sports day as the potential saviour of our
universal standing. The afternoon started badly and we slipped down the rankings behind Tudor
25
and Seymour, however committed efforts and strong performances both in the track and field
resulted in the sustained acquisition of points towards the ultimate total. We were never able to
run rings around our rivals but the relays summed up our efforts and we finished second in each of
the five orbits and won the Relay Trophy. With this cosmic performance we won sports day for the
first time in (what seems like) 13.7 billion years. Huge thanks to all who have kept the fabric of
space-time together for Howard in what has been a really busy term, especially to Oliver Paulin,
our VB Winner in Year 13 for House commitment and performance over the years, and to Connor
Burns our captain. Well done to Satnam Ajimal who has been elected as the new Howard House
Captain and many thanks to Alex Lane, Will Houlden and Kingsley Bates who also stood for the
position and will be capable and inspirational supporters for all parts of Howard over the coming
terms. So… things did get better and as we drift past Pluto and out beyond the mysteries of the
Kuiper belt, we venture forth to boldly go where no house has gone before.
GNH
Seymour
Well, after having a not so good spring term, the boys of Seymour house have responded in an
outstanding manner. Firstly, we took on the other houses in Table Tennis and came out victorious.
Then, the Seniors did their bit by winning both the Cricket and Tennis for their age groups. An
excellent contribution from the upper sixth for their final competition. After all of Years 7 to 10
performed their best in the athletics standards, Seymour were going to be starting Sports Day in
second place.
This meant the second half of the summer term was going to see some close competitions in all
three events and, more interestingly, a frantic push for the overall House Championship!
The Intermediate cricket competition produced some exciting matches with the Seymour team
adding to the seniors’ score. After the Year 8s and 7s had played two of the three matches each,
Seymour were in sight of the finishing line. One more victory from the two remaining games would
seal it. The Year 8s then did their bit by unexpectedly beating Howard in their last game. House
cricket was Seymour’s, which meant the Year 7s could relax playing their final match.
26
Tennis came next. The Intermediate pairing of Ajay John and Alex Byrne played exceptionally well
scoring a good amount of points topping up the scores of Seniors Tom Wood and Alex Hughes. The
Junior pairing of John Byrne and Jonathan Anderson also played their part and scored valuable
points to add to the total. With everybody contributing, the final scores put Seymour on top.
Sports Day arrived and Seymour were excited at the prospect of competing for the final time this
year. Outstanding performances from the Year 9s boosted the house with the other years all
contributing well to the final scores. Seymour, Tudor and Howard kept swapping positions
throughout the afternoon but unfortunately Tudor and Howard came through at the end ahead of
Seymour. All competitors performed valiantly, with Year 9’s Alex Byrne winning the Victor Lodurum
for the third year in a row.
So winning three of the last four competitions has changed things around. At Easter, Beaufort and
Tudor were fighting for the top spot with Seymour and Howard some way behind. The final
standings have given the boys the reward they deserve for their efforts this term. Seymour have
leap frogged over Beaufort into second place only a few points behind Tudor. If only we had started
the comeback earlier, who knows what the final position would have been!
TJW
Tudor
Well what can be said? The boys have shown their true colours and as a group they have dug deep
and won the overall house championship. The house members have had a tremendous year and
given their best in all competitions.
This term allowed us to continue building on the previous two terms of high achievements. The
competitions to complete this year’s house championship were table tennis, tennis cricket and
athletics.
In the table tennis competition we came 2nd overall; this was mainly due to our junior quartet who
won 16 of their 18 games. This was exceptional as it was over twice the combined score of our
Inter and senior team. So the future of table tennis for Tudor looks well.
Our tennis players had to battle with the elements as well as their competitors, but we showed
that we need to continue to work at this sport. The team of players achieved a close 3rd overall,
but this might have been different if one of our young men hadn’t suffered an injury limiting him to
only completing one of his games. I wish him a speedy recovery and he will have the chance to put
this right next year.
The cricket players achieved joint 2nd in their competition and this is one of our best achievements
in this sport for a number of years. We had a few close games that could have gone either way,
even one game that had the scores tied but was lost due to wicket count.
With the last event of the summer been the Sports Day we went into the day 3rd after our
standards, but I must mention that a number of boys produced their best ever individual standards
scores. The deficit from standards was always going to be a challenge to overhaul, but our athletes’
27
gave their best. It shows our level of athletic prowess as a house when three members achieved
the Victor Ludorum for their age group. We came 2nd with the combination of standards and
Sports Day.
Well done for the year, it has been a pleasure to be house master of ‘The Green Machine’ you have
conducted yourselves well and shown true sportsmanship.
Can I say a big thank you to Andrew Featherstone and Oliver Whitfield for their support and
carrying out of their duties as House Captain and Vice- Captain. I must also say a big thank you to
the year thirteen lads, that have now moved on to pastures new, without their help and support
then it would have made the running of the house a far greater and onerous task. They had been a
year group that gave the impetus for this year’s house championship victory.
Talking of the old regime, the new one isn’t bad either, except that we don’t have a House
Secretary at the moment; any offers? Dominic Paver and Tom Meehan have taken up the reins as
the new House Captain and Vice-Captain with gusto and are getting down to business, with
supporting and encouraging other members of the house.
Have a relaxing summer, you all deserve it and come back in September refreshed and ready to
push on from the excellent work achieved this year.
AJN
CRICKET SUMMARY
BEST
BATTING
BEST
BOWLING
PLAYED
WON
DRAWN
LOST
1st XI
5
2
0
3
E Saunders 74
W Houlden 2/18
2nd XI
2
0
0
2
A Thakral 34
T Else 2/28
E Takhar 2/28
U/15
B
U/14
B
U/13
B
U/12
B
6
1
6
3
8
3
7
3
3
0
1
2
5
2
4
2
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
3
1
4
1
3
1
3
1
S Khan 52
A Ahmed 3/11
Pranav 44*
H Yate 3/6
V Venkatamaraiah 66*
V Venkatamaraiah 4/0
A Nirantharakumar 44* Ab 3/6
TENNIS SUMMARY
28
st
1 IV
U/15 A
U/15 B
U/13 A
U/13 B
PLAYED
6
5
3
9
4
WON
1
5
2
4
2
DRAWN
0
0
1
2
0
LOST
5
0
0
3
2
ATHLETICS SUMMARY
TOTAL
MATCHES
11
TOTAL
TEAMS
5
1st
PLACES
2
2nd
PLACES
2
3rd
PLACES
3
1st XI CRICKET
The term began with House Cricket which beat the weather and proved a successful venture for
Seymour. Then the first school match took place against Aston, who posted a fine 163-4 from 20
overs, Jei Diwakar taking two wickets. Our reply suffered from losing wickets at a steady rate, so
although Dom Paver hit 43 we finished all out for 131.
Against Bablake we again bowled first, restricting them to 132-7, Mustafa Chaudhry and Henry
Houlden taking two wickets apiece. Ed Saunders then batted very well for his 74, Alex Lane
chipping in with a brisk 28 to see us home by 7 wickets.
In the Warwickshire Cup we hosted Bishop Vesey and they batted strongly to reach 166-7 in 20
overs. Jei and Will Houlden were our wicket-takers this time. Alex then hit a fine 51 and Jei 49, but
losing both these wickets with the finish line in sight proved crucial and we ended on 151-6 which
left us feeling somewhat disappointed.
A lengthy break for external exams then followed and on our return we travelled to Fiveways. They
batted slowly, our bowling attack proving too consistent and our fielding too tight to allow more
than 105-5 from 20. Our best bowling innings of the season gave us good heart to attack the
batting challenge. Ed and Jei really enjoyed themselves as they led us to a 10 wicket victory. Jei hit
35* from 43 balls. Ed’s 69* came from just 32 deliveries and included 5 sixes and 6 fours. The
winning margin was one to enjoy as the Upper VI disappeared off to their Leavers’ Ball at the
Botanical Gardens.
The annual match with the MCC was hosted superbly by Kings Heath CC. The MCC field a very
strong line-up these days, with a number of players hoping to impress during their probationary
period of membership. They scored 222-3 declared and then bowled us out for 138. Dom top
scored with 32, but too many of our batsmen got themselves out.
So just one game remaining, against the staff side on the penultimate day of term. The boys will be
hoping to repeat their dominant performance of last year which would deservedly provide them
with a 50/50 success rate for this summer.
29
My thanks to all senior players for their contribution and to captain Chad Atkinson for his
leadership.
MWD
2ND
XI CRICKET
Sadly, the 2nd XI cannot claim a particularly successful season: played two, lost two. Frustratingly,
both have been close-run affairs. King Edward’s Aston posted 115 all out; we followed up with 108
all out. Bablake made 145 off their twenty overs; Camp Hill fell just twelve runs short of that.
In the Aston game, the bowling honours go to Tom Else, whose figures of 2 for 28 off 4 tell only
part of the story. He bowled 2 overs for just 2 runs; then he bowled two overs for 26 runs at the
end – in other words as Aston started to accelerate (they had wickets in hand) they gave Tom a
hard time, but he had the satisfaction of sending two of them packing. Ekamroop Takhar was our
most economical bowler: his three overs conceded just 6 runs and yielded 1 wicket. In our reply,
Aaditya Thakral’s 34 was an excellent knock; Ekamroop’s score of 17 was the second highest (not
counting extras), so he can be satisfied with an excellent all-round performance.
Ekamroop starred with the ball against Bablake, as well, taking 2 for 28 off his 4. Bablake
generously gave us 44 extras; none of our batsmen could come close to that. Zidan Salim, with 21,
was our top-scoring batsman. Chasing 145 in 20 overs was always going to be tough; we made a
great effort, scoring more quickly than Bablake had in the first 14 overs, but at a greater cost in
wickets. Come the acceleration phase at the end, we could not sustain it, and fell painfully short in
what we had turned into a very exciting contest.
MJG
U15 XI CRICKET
After an inauspicious start with preventable losses to Lawrence Sherrif and KE Stratford, the team
eventually found some good form to beat KE Five Ways. The emphasis during practice sessions was
always focused on good application of basic skills and a positive approach. Although results did not
always illustrate those particular attributes to the full, there were, eventually signs that some
lessons had been learned especially that team play is just as important in cricket as in any other
sport. Although regular run-outs were a consistent worry, the team gained in confidence and good
wins against Fairfax, with a total of 213-5, and Washwood Heath, in the Docker Shield semi-final,
were well deserved and probably worth remembering for some years yet. The team now look
forward to representing the school in the Docker Shield final, sometime in September, and we wish
them well in that encounter. It is not my customary style to mention individuals in a team
endeavor but I will, on this occasion, make an exception or two. Adam Ahmed and Aditya Dhiran
have been good and generally consistent bowlers recently and clearly the most talented batsman,
Salah Khan, was not always given the support he needed to make the runs he was clearly capable
of. Thanks also to our captain, Safee Salim who was exceptionally able to organize the players and
who was also very capable with his on-field tactics! Finally, thank you all for working hard to
improve your game and I hope that you each derived some enjoyment from what eventually
became a successful season. Well done!
PTC
30
U14 CRICKET
A Team
Played 7
Won 1
Tied 1
Lost 5
B Team
Played 4
Won 3
Lost 1
Cricket is a game of small margins and as such, the playing record of the A team does not really
reflect their performances throughout the season.
A win by 23 runs against Lawrence Sheriff was a pleasing start to the season but was quickly
followed by two narrow defeats to KE Five Ways and KE Aston with 5 and 4 balls to go in the final
over, respectively.
The next game against Princethorpe was even closer. Needing two runs for a win off the last ball of
the match and with 9 wickets down, we scrambled a single to tie. However, this was a match that
we could have and should have won. Hopefully lessons were learnt for the future and hence my
reference to small margins.
The final two games against Bablake and Queen Mary’s Walsall were disappointing defeats. We
have only looked like winning games when defending totals with some accurate bowling and alert
fielding. Chasing runs to win will require more composure at the crease, improved running
between the wickets and appropriate shot selection. In fact all the things, along with catching, that
we practice every Monday night after school!
The B team also played four matches, winning three of them. Particularly noteworthy were the first
and last matches, which were won in dramatic fashion. Beating Lawrence Sheriff by 102 runs was
an emphatic start to the season. However, the 1 run win against Queen Mary’s Walsall was
definitely the most exciting.
In total, 28 boys represented the school in Year 9 cricket teams this season. Whilst enthusiasm and
commitment to practices were very pleasing, without exception all boys will need to improve most,
if not all of the basic skills thoroughly in order to progress to senior cricket in two years time.
Finally, a big THANK YOU to Harry Yate for his efficient and helpful leadership on and before match
days plus the support given to both of us by Owais Akram. Well done boys!
D.T.W
U13 CRICKET
The U13 cricket team have had a good season, winning 5 matches and losing 3. The first two
matches took place against Lawrence Sheriff and Five Ways. Both unfortunately finished with
narrow defeats. However Camp Hill soon turned things around as they went on a 5 match
31
unbeaten run. Saturday victories against KE Stratford and Princethorpe were followed up by midweek victories in the cup against Fairfax, Broadway and Fairfax. This led to an Amiss cup final
against KE Five Ways. Camp Hill were desperate to get revenge on Five Ways following their defeat
to them earlier in the season, but unfortunately this wasn’t to be and Five Ways were crowned as
winners following a rain affected match at the end of the season.
There were some fantastic individual performances throughout the season. The highest amount of
runs scored in an innings came from Vignesh Venkat with 66 not out against Fairfax. Aadam Zafar
batted well all season and his highest score was 36 against Stratford. Kiren Marimuthu was also a
key batsman and his top score was 31, also against Stratford.
Key bowlers included Ryan Malhi, and Sam Hope but the top figures for a single match went to
captain Sachin Subramonian (1-1 against Princethorpe), Mohammed Farooq (1-1 against Broadway)
and Madhav Manoj (3-4 against Princethorpe).
The U13 B team have also had an enjoyable season with wins against Lawrence Sheriff and KE
Stratford, with narrow defeats against Priory school and Camp Hill U14. Well done to all of the boys
who have represented the U13 teams this year.
TMS
U12 XI CRICKET
The U12 cricket team have had an up and down year of cricket, with a ratio of four victories and
three losses. The wins came against Lawrence Sheriff, KE Aston, Princethorpe and Kings Heath.
Captain Abhinash Nirantharakumar played a starring role for the team with a number of good
batting and bowling displays. His best figures with the ball were 3-10 (against Lawrence Sheriff) and
with the bat he scored 44 runs against Aston. Other memorable bowling performances came from
Aaryan Deshpande (3-9 against Kings Heath) and Haseeb Arif (1-7 against Kings Heath). Ibraheem
Mohammed managed an excellent 39 runs against Stratford and Amar Jandu scored a solid 21 runs
in the same match.
The U12 B team have also worked hard at training sessions and this has paid off during their
performances in matches. The boys can be proud of their wins against Lawrence Sheriff and KE
Aston. Well done to all of the year 7s who have represented the school at cricket this season.
TMS
TENNIS
SENIORS:
The Senior Tennis Team ( Tom Wood, Tim Naylor, Giles Moss, James Ternent, Ashrit Chohan)
completed their season with three matches during the summer term. We lost both our usual
fixtures against KES 0-6 and Solihull School 2-4, and were unlucky to be drawn against Rugby
School ( last year’s National Champions) in the Glanville Cup, this unsurprisingly resulted in a 0-6
defeat. Despite it being a season where results have gone against us, the team has played with
32
enthusiasm and good humour. In most cases they have been up against players with higher
rankings, but have always played their matches in the right spirit.
We say farewell to two Camp Hill Tennis stalwarts. James Ternent has represented school Tennis
teams since joining the school and played in 15 matches during his time in the Senior Tennis team.
Giles Moss is another player who has made a strong commitment over the years. Although Giles
did not play during Year 12, he has represented the school on 5 occasions this year. Tim Naylor
joined Camp Hill in the 6Th Form and has since been a regular in the Senior team. We wish them
well in the future and hope they continue to enjoy the sport. Tom Wood remains next year and we
hope that Ashrit Chohan and Alex Hughes of Year 11 will form the basis of a strong squad. Well
done to the Senior Tennis players. It has been a pleasure to take you this year.
U.15 TENNIS:
The U.15 ‘A’ team ( Danny Blyth, Liam Garside, Ajay John, Alex Byrne & Johannes Beckett) have had
an excellent season winning all of their matches. The highlights were 3 wins against Soilihull School
6-0, KE Fiveways 4-1 & KES ‘B’ 4-2. The team play KES ‘A’ in the league decider in September ,to
see who progresses to the later stages of the competition.
Particular credit must be given to Danny and Liam, who have both remained unbeaten in all their
matches this term and they have also been ably supported by Ajay, Alex & Johannes. With Danny,
Ajay and Alex all being still available next year the U.15 team can hopefully look forward to
another successful season.
The U.15 ‘B’ team ( Johannes Beckett, Rohan Sharma, Vamsi Pratapa, Chris Marshall, Alex Byrne &
Matin Ahmed) have a tough league programme against the ‘A’ teams of other schools. They had
competitive matches against Priory School & Bishop Challoner; losing both 2-4, but beat Bournville
6-0.
U.13 TENNIS:
The U.13 ‘A’ team ( Madhav Manoj, Aadam Zafar, Simon Halstead, Luke Hemming, Aryan
Deshpande, Karthik Bhardawaj , Michael James Thomas & Mohammed Farooq) . The highlight of
the season was a fine performance in the Bishop Challoner School Games in which the team beat
Wheelers Lane, Queensbridge, Bishop Challoner and KES to win the competition.
Our performance in the leagues, however, was less impressive, managing a win and a draw in 5
matches. Nevertheless, it is encouraging that 3 of the team are Year 7 players and they have
undoubtedly gained valuable experience for next year.
The ‘B’ team ( Aadam Zafar, Joe Shalabi, Sai Potluri, Kiran Maramuthu, Simon Halstead & Michael
James Thomas) like their U.15 counterparts also had a league programme of matches against ‘A’
teams from other local schools. Their one win was against Bournville 6-0.
The school Tennis season is a relatively short and I would encourage all boys to look into joining a
local club if they aren’t already members somewhere or enrolling on sessions at Billesley Tennis
Centre.
TRIP TO WIMBLEDON:
33
We were successful in the Wimbledon Schools Ballot this year and this enabled Mr Duncan and
myself ( It was a tough job , but somebody had to do it) to take 8 lucky boys to Day 4 of the
Championships. We even had the company of Roger Federer for part of the day !! The boys had
the opportunity to experience the special atmosphere of Wimbledon, visiting the outside courts
during the morning before settling down in our Court 1 seats to watch Andy Murray, Petra Kvitova
& Joe Wilfred Tsonga in successive matches. A memorable day was capped off by watching Duncan
Brown complete the final set of his epic victory against legend Rafael Nadal, along with the crowds
on Murray Mound. A great Tennis experience for all involved.
CMJ
I'm in Year 12 and play for the school team, but I have also run a tennis club for lower years over
the summer term. I coach at Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society (EALTS) and would like to
invite everyone to our open day on the 18th of July where there will be free tennis coaching
available.
Tom Wood L4
ATHLETICS
What happened to global warming? This season was spoilt by the weather, certainly
through the first half of the summer term.
The Senior Foundation match did take place and although there was a good turn-out, our
performance didn’t match former years. In the Sixth Form team, as in previous years, Oliver
Paulin won both the 800m and 1500m, Joe Cullen was successful at 200m, Jacob Bruten
won his 400m race and 2nd place went to Wes Blackhurst (400m), Will Stenson (Shot) and
Samson Gahir (Discus). In the 800m, Oliver finished 9 seconds before 2nd place and in the
1500m he led from the start ending with 4.39.02 only 17 seconds ahead of the rest! Oliver
has been one of the strongest athletes at the school for many years. He has also achieved
considerable success outside school, more recently winning the Warwickshire U20 County
Championships for the 5000m. We look forward to hearing of his future athletics career.
Year 11 had wins with Cameron Steel (Long Jump) and Lewis Evans (High Jump) with second
places by Cameron (100m and 200m) Lewis (400m) Edward Connolly (Hurdles and 1500m)
and the relay team. Overall results were, Aston 267, KES 260, Camp Hill 240 and KE
Stratford 108.
The next two matches were cancelled due to rain which was devastating as it would have
been the first opportunity for Year 7 to compete.
The English Schools’ Track and Field Cup is still a most enjoyable contest where each athlete
competes in 2 events and scores points for both performances. These points are added
together for the whole team. Again the weather was poor for the first round and a number
of events were cancelled. Despite this, the teams did superbly to finish 1st at both age
groups and so qualified for the Midlands Regional A final. Best intermediate individual
scores came from Chris Marshall 30 points, Dan Charlesworth 17 points in just one event
(300m) and Shreyas Annadate 20 points also in one event (Discus). The Junior team had
some outstanding results with Louis Cooke 47 points, (which is possibly the highest
individual score since 2007 when the team reached the national final) and Leon Zhang 35
34
points. Sadly the Regional round occurred on a teacher day and we were unable to put
forward our strongest teams. However, there were superb performances by Louis and Leon
again but also Judah Daniels, Tommy Ransbotyn and Joe Clark. Highest scores in the
intermediates were by Nick Surr and Dan Hill.
We did manage to squeeze in a Year 10 match with Solihull, Warwick and KE Stratford. Tom
Mansfield was our most notable success with first in the 1500m and although we beat
Solihull we eventually came third.
The Junior Foundation competition is split into two matches; years 9 and 10 followed by
years 7 and 8. In the first half of this competition, the Year 9 team were outstanding.
Finishing first were Kamil Khan (Hurdles), Alex Byrne (1500m) and Dylan Rodgers (800m)
and second place to Kamil (Triple Jump). The rest of the team performed so well that the
team placed second beating KE Stratford, Aston and Sheldon Heath. Year 10 had a similar
result placing 2nd. Well done to the usual ones but also Johannes Beckett, Zulfikar Khan,
Mason Jolley, Isara Mahalekam, Dan Higgins, Dan Hill, Liam Garside and Ruairi Lynch.
In the second half of the competition, both Year 8 and 7 competed superbly but sadly we
have not received the results from KES. I can recall that the Year 8 team looked as if they
would be strong contenders for a win and there were some excellent results from Year 7.
Well done to future stars such as Richard Amoshe, Ross Evans, Dylan Rees, Abi
Nirantharakumar, Aadam Audhali, Andrew Lim, Joe Thompson, Miles Balderson, Fintan
Hogan, Joel Foster, Noah Lloyd, Gabriel Millet, Pavan Rana, Raj Tiwana, Usmaan Nadeem
and Yusof Elsherbiny.
A small number of athletes were selected for the West Birmingham team in the County
Championships. Notable performances at Intermediate age group came from Cameron
Steel 5.80m in Long Jump and Tom Mansfield 4m 42s in 1500m; at Junior age group Alex
Byrne with 4m 49s in 1500m and at Under 14 age group Louis Cooke 12.3 in 100m and Leon
Zhang 26.7 in 200m.
Final congratulations, however, must go to all athletes who volunteered to fill in events at
the last minute. Without their courage, there would not be the competitive spirit, fun and
overall success. Yet again, I would like to encourage any potential athletes to look towards
joining local clubs, where they can receive expert coaching together with quality
competition.
GH
35
Key Dates 2015-16
Date
07/09/15
07/09/15
07/09/15
07/09/15
Description
Term Starts
Instrumental lessons start
Week A
Staff 11+ Invigilator briefing LHS
07/09/15
Staff 11+ Invigilator briefing CHB
07/09/15
Instrumental teachers' meeting. CHG
08/09/15
Y13 and Y11 Entrance test volunteers meeting. Dining Room
08/09/15
Student Photos Ys 7, 10, 12 HALL
08/09/15
OPRO
08/09/15
Y12 Entrance Test volunteers' meeting. Meeting Room
08/09/15
Staff 11+ Invigilator briefing CHB
08/09/15
Staff 11+ Invigilator briefing LHS
08/09/15
Y13 Parents' Evening
09/09/15
Joint Health and Safety meeeting. PROV
10/09/15
10/09/15
Y12 Information Evening
Y8, Y9,10,11 Author Visit. Patrick Ness. PROV
11/09/15
Hall set up for entrance test
12/09/15
14/09/15
14/09/15
15/09/15
16/09/15
Entrance Test
Ensembles begin
Week B
Y10 Induction Evening
AFS Meeting
17/09/15
CHG Open Day
18/09/15
Open Evening
19/09/15
Open Day.
21/09/15
21/09/15
21/09/15
Y13 Interview training. Meeting Room
Week A
Governors' Pastoral Liaison meeting
36
Time
all day
all day
all day
12:40 13:15
12:40 13:15
16:00 17:00
09:00 09:15
09:15 10:30
09:30 11:00
10:15 10:30
12:40 13:15
12:40 13:15
16:00 18:00
15:45 16:30
all day
14:00 15:30
08:00 15:30
all day
all day
all day
all day
19:00 20:00
17:30 20:30
18:00 20:00
10:00 12:00
all day
all day
20:00 -
21:00
all day
11:00 13:00
18:00 19:45
11:00 13:00
18:00 20:00
19:00 20:00
18:00 19:45
all day
all day
18:00 20:00
15:45 17:00
18:00 20:00
all day
5 days
22/09/15
22/09/15
Y13 Interview training. Meeting Room
CHG Open Morning
22/09/15
7M and 7J Chem and Physics Enrichment Sessions
23/09/15
CHG Open Morning
23/09/15
CHG Y10 Parents' Transition Evening
23/09/15
Iceland Parents' Evening
24/09/15
7S and 7K Chem and Physics Enrichment sessions
25/09/15
28/09/15
28/09/15
Y12.Birmingham University Lightfest
Week B
Governors Curriculum Liaison meeting
29/09/15
HoDs meeting
30/09/15
CHG Y12 Parents' Transition Evening
05/10/15
05/10/15 09/10/15
05/10/15
Week A
Y11 Careers Interviews - Library Office
07/10/15 13/10/15
12/10/15 16/10/15
12/10/15
12/10/15
Y9 German Homestay trip.EMW
15:45 17:00
7 days
Y11 Careers Interviews - Library Office
5 days
Week B
Allergy Awareness training
13/10/15
Staff Meeting
15/10/15
New Y7 Parents' Social Evening
19/10/15
19/10/15 20/10/15
19/10/15
19/10/15
Week A
Y11 Careers Interviews- Library Office
all day
15:45 16:45
15:45 17:00
19:00 21:00
all day
2 days
20/10/15
Governors' Open Day. PROV
20/10/15
AFS Y9 Cake Sale
20/10/15
Mock Interviews
Pastoral Board Meeting
Y7,8,9 Review 1 on Network
Mock Interviews
37
all day
18:00 20:00
08:30 13:30
08:30 12:00
18:00 -
22/10/15
22/10/15 25/10/15
26/10/15 31/10/15
26/10/15 30/10/15
02/11/15
02/11/15
02/11/15
03/11/15
03/11/15
04/11/15
Y7,8,9 Review 1 to Parents
Y13 Biology Field Trip
20:00
all day
4 days
Iceland Trip
6 days
04/11/15
Chamber Concert CHB
05/11/15
05/11/15
05/11/15
05/11/15
Y8 Cross Country
Y10, Y11, Y12,Y13 Report to Parents
Y11 Options Evening
Senior Mathematics Challenge (Y12/13 + some Y11) (AMR)
06/11/15
09/11/15
09/11/15
09/11/15
Y7 Cross Country
Y10 GB Rugby (KES)
Week A
HoDs meeting
10/11/15
10/11/15
11/11/15
Y9 GB Rugby (KES)
GCSE Presentation Evening
Y7 Foundation Service
12/11/15
CHG VI Open Evening
16/11/15
16/11/15
Week B
Y12 Parents Evening
17/11/15
Y12 Chemistry in Action. Warwick Uni.ERA
19/11/15
CHG Y13 Parents' Evening
23/11/15
25/11/15
Week A
German Homestay Parents meeting
26/11/15
UKMT Senior Team Maths Challenge regional final (AMR)
26/11/15
Staff Meeting
30/11/15
Week B
5 days
Week B
Y10 Cross Country
Y10, Y11, Y12,Y13 Review 1 on Network
Y9 Cross Country
Y11 Cosford Trip.PROV
Y10 Lord of the Flies trip. Bham Rep.JLP
38
all day
all day
all day
all day
all day
15:00 17:00
19:00 21:30
all day
all day
all day
09:00 15:30
all day
all day
all day
15:45 17:00
all day
all day
09:00 12:00
18:00 20:00
all day
16:00 18:00
08:30 17:00
16:00 18:00
all day
17:15 18:15
09:30 14:00
15:45 17:00
all day
01/12/15
Pastoral Board Meeting
03/12/15
03/12/15
House Cross Country Finals
CHG Y12 Parents' Evening
04/12/15
Prize Giving
07/12/15
07/12/15 11/12/15
07/12/15
08/12/15
10/12/15
10/12/15
Y7,8,9 Review 2 on Network
Y11 Mocks
11/12/15
11/12/15
Y11 Review 2 on Network
CHG Prize Giving
14/12/15
14/12/15
14/12/15
Week B
Y10,12, 13 Review 2 on Network
Christmas Concert CHG
15/12/15 16/12/15
16/12/15
EES Residential.AJN
17/12/15
19/12/15 03/01/16
04/01/16 08/01/16
04/01/16
04/01/16 24/03/16
05/01/16
Y10, 11,12,13 Review 2 to Parents
07/01/16
CHG Y7 Parents' Evening(2)
11/01/16
13/01/16
18/01/16
18/01/16
Week B
Y11 Exam marks on Network
Week A
Poetry and Music Workshop
21/01/16
21/01/16 22/01/16
21/01/16
Y11 FT comments on Network
Y12 Careers Interviews - Library Office
25/01/16
Week B
Week A
Teacher Day Growth Mindsets
Y7,8,9 Review 2 to Parents
Y7 Parents' Evening
Carol Service
15:45 17:00
all day
16:15 18:00
19:00 21:30
all day
5 days
all day
all day
all day
16:00 17:30
all day
13:00 17:00
all day
all day
19:00 22:00
2 days
19:30 21:00
all day
16 days
Y12 and Y13 Exams
5 days
Week A
all day
81 days
CHG Y7 Parents' Evening (1)
16:00 18:00
16:00 18:00
all day
all day
all day
10:00 12:00
all day
2 days
HoDs meeting
15:45 17:00
all day
39
25/01/16 29/01/16
25/01/16
Y12 Careers interviews - Library Office
5 days
Staff Meeting
26/01/16
26/01/16
Y11 Exam Report to Parents
Y10 Immunisations. Meeting Room and Careers
27/01/16
28/01/16
Y12 and Y13 Exam marks on Network
Y10 Trip to Macbeth. Bham Rep. JLP
28/01/16
CHG Y11 Parents' Evening
31/01/16
Birmingham Cathedral Festival
01/02/16
01/02/16
01/02/16 05/02/16
01/02/16
Week A
Y7,8,9,10 Review 3 on Network
Y12 Careers Interviews - Library Office
15:45 17:00
all day
09:00 12:00
all day
15:00 17:00
16:15 18:00
15:30 16:30
all day
all day
5 days
01/02/16
Governors Curriculum Liaison meeting
02/02/16
Poetry and Music Performance for pupils
03/02/16
Poetry and Music Performance for Parents
04/02/16
04/02/16
04/02/16
Y8 House Rugby
Y7,8,9, Review 3 to Parents
Intermediate Mathematics Challenge (Y9/10/11) (AMR)
04/02/16
Y11 Parents' Evening
05/02/16
08/02/16
08/02/16
08/02/16 12/02/16
08/02/16
Y7 House Rugby
Week B
Y12 and Y13 FT comments on Network
Y12 Careers Interviews - Library Office
09/02/16
CHG Songs from the Shows
10/02/16
CHG Songs from the Shows
11/02/16
11/02/16
11/02/16
12/02/16 20/02/16
15/02/16 -
House Swimming Gala
Y12 and Y13 Exam Report to Parents
Y10 Review 3 to Parents
Ski Trip
Pastoral Board Meeting
Governors' Pastoral Liaison committee meeting
15:45 17:00
18:00 20:00
13:30 15:30
19:00 20:30
all day
all day
09:00 15:30
16:00 18:00
all day
all day
all day
5 days
18:00 20:00
19:00 21:00
19:00 21:00
all day
all day
all day
9 days
5 days
40
19/02/16
22/02/16
23/02/16
Week A
Y13 Parents' Evening (2)
24/02/16
CHG Y9 Options Evening
25/02/16
CHG Y10 Parents' Evening
25/02/16
Y9 Options Evening
29/02/16
01/03/16
Week B
HoDs Meeting
01/03/16
WMCTA Quiz - HALL
01/03/16
Instrumental Parents' Evening CHB tbc
02/03/16
03/03/16 06/03/16
03/03/16
CHG Higher Education Day
Junior Rugby and Hockey Tour
07/03/16
07/03/16
08/03/16
Week A
Y9 Review 4 on Network
Teatime Concert CHB
10/03/16
10/03/16
10/03/16
Y9 R4 to Parents
Y8 GB Rugby (KES)
Y9 Parents' Evening
11/03/16
14/03/16
14/03/16
14/03/16
14/03/16
Y7 GB Rugby (KES)
A Level Chemistry Science Live
Y7, 8 Review 4 on Network
Week B
Pastoral Board meeting
15/03/16
Senior Production Matinee
16/03/16
Senior Production
17/03/16
17/03/16
Y7,8 Review 4 to Parents
Senior Production
18/03/16
Senior Production
19/03/16
Senior Production
21/03/16
21/03/16
Y10,11,12,13 Review 4 on Network
Week A
CHG Y9 Parents' Evening
41
all day
16:00 18:00
18:00 20:00
16:00 18:00
19:15 21:00
all day
15:45 17:00
18:00 21:00
19:00 20:00
all day
4 days
16:15 18:00
all day
all day
17:00 18:00
all day
all day
16:00 18:00
all day
all day
all day
all day
15:45 17:00
13:30 15:30
19:00 22:00
all day
19:00 22:00
19:00 22:00
19:00 22:00
all day
all day
21/03/16
Staff Meeting
22/03/16
24/03/16
25/03/16 10/04/16
11/04/16
11/04/16 22/07/16
12/04/16
House Music
Y10,11,12,13 Review 4 to Parents
13/04/16
14/04/16
Y11-13 House Cricket and Tennis
HoDs Meeting
14/04/16
CHG Y8 Parents' Evening (2)
15/04/16
Senior Rugby Dinner
18/04/16
19/04/16
Week A
Y8 Parents' Evening
25/04/16
26/04/16
Week B
Staff Meeting
26/04/16
CHG Y6 Parents' Welome evening
28/04/16
28/04/16
EES Celebration Day
Junior Mathematics Challenge (Y7/8) (AMR)
02/05/16
02/05/16
03/05/16
Week A
03/05/16
Senior Concert CHG
09/05/16
09/05/16
09/05/16
09/05/16
Y10 House Athletics Standards
Week B
Y7,8,9,10 Review 5 on Network
Governors' Pastoral Liaison Meeting
10/05/16
12/05/16
16/05/16 20/05/16
16/05/16
23/05/16
23/05/16 27/05/16
15:45 17:00
all day
all day
17 days
Week B
all day
103 days
CHG Y8 Parents' Evening (1)
Y9 House Athletics Standards
Y7,8,9,10 Review 5 to Parents
Y8 Conway trip PROV
16:00 18:00
all day
15:45 17:00
16:00 18:00
19:00 22:30
all day
16:00 18:00
all day
15:45 17:00
18:00 20:00
all day
09:00 15:30
all day
all day
15:45 17:00
19:00 21:00
all day
all day
all day
18:00 20:00
all day
all day
5 days
Week A
Week B
Y9 and Y10 Exams
all day
all day
5 days
Pastoral Board Meeting
42
23/05/16
Governors Curriculum Liaison meeting
24/05/16
26/05/16
27/05/16
30/05/16 03/06/16
06/06/16 10/06/16
06/06/16
13/06/16
13/06/16
14/06/16
16/06/16
Y7-10 Norman Green Athletics
Y8 House Athletics Standards
Y7 House Athletics Standards
20/06/16
20/06/16
20/06/16 24/06/16
20/06/16
20/06/16
Y9-10 House Cricket
Week A
Y7 Trip to Paris.PROV
20/06/16
Pastoral Board Meeting
21/06/16
21/06/16
23/06/16
24/06/16
27/06/16
28/06/16
30/06/16
30/06/16 04/07/16
30/06/16
30/06/16
01/07/16
01/07/16
04/07/16
04/07/16
Y9-10 House Cricket
Y7 and 9 Exam marks on Network
Y8 House Cricket
Y7 House Cricket
Week B
Y8 and Y10 Exam marks on Network
Y7 and Y9 FT comments on Network
Y9 Trip to Paris.KLB
05/07/16
05/07/16
Y7-10 House Tennis
New Y 7 Parents Induction Evening
06/07/16
07/07/16
New Y7 Induction Day
CHG Open Day
08/07/16
Y7 and Y9 Exam Report to Parents
18:00 20:00
all day
all day
all day
5 days
Y7 and Y8 Exams
5 days
Week A
Week B
Teacher Day
Teacher Day
Summer Soiree CHB
all day
all day
all day
all day
19:00 21:00
all day
all day
5 days
Y11 Work Experience Conferencs
Y11 Book Return
Y12 Ecton Mine.ERA
Y8 House Cricket
Y7 House Cricket
Y12 Induction Day
Week A
HoDs Meeting
43
all day
08:45 09:30
15:45 17:00
all day
all day
all day
all day
all day
all day
all day
5 days
all day
all day
all day
all day
all day
15:45 17:00
all day
19:00 21:00
all day
15:00 18:00
all day
08/07/16
Timberley Graduation.
11/07/16
11/07/16
11/07/16
13/07/16
Week B
CHG Sports Day
Y8 and Y10 FT comments on Network
Sports Day
14/07/16
Y10 Parents' Evening
15/07/16
18/07/16
18/07/16
18/07/16
Y8 and Y10 Exam Report to Parents
Junior Presentation Evening
Week A
CHG Y12 Parents' Induction Evening
19/07/16
20/07/16
Junior Presentation evening
Sports Day Reserve
21/07/16
1st XI v Staff
44
18:00 19:00
all day
all day
all day
12:00 15:30
16:00 18:00
all day
all day
all day
18:00 20:00
all day
12:00 15:30
all day