Bromsgroviann e w s r e v i e w

REG I

BROMSGROVE SCHOOL

A word from the Headmaster

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For the first time in many years, the Senior School staff and pupil body gathered under one roof for an event.

Frankly, it was a moving sight for which I have waited a long time, since neither Routh nor the Memorial Chapel have come close to accommodating the Senior School for nearly a decade. Over one thousand people sat in the

new Arena to listen to and take part in the Senior House Song competition. Anybody fearing that Bromsgrove’s recent, rapid expansion might somehow dilute the essence of this School need only have witnessed this wonderful occasion to know that the spirit is stronger than ever. I suspect the collector of African proverbs, Askhari Johnson Hodari, has not appeared in

many Independent School newsletters, so let’s put that right: “If everyone helps to hold up the sky, then one person does not become tired.”

cHris eDwArDs Headmaster

Model UN

European Languages Day

Eight Upper Sixth formers recently represented Ethiopia and Greece in their first ever Model United Nations’ conference. The day began early and upon arrival at the host school, Reigate Grammar, the delegates joined committees and lobbied their pre-prepared resolutions, after which debating began on several topics including Primary Education, Waterborne Disease and Bringing War Criminals to Justice. They will now go immediately into using this experience to help prepare for the next conference where five more delegates will represent Azerbaijan.

Senior School pupils joined in with Prep and Pre-Prep pupils to celebrate European Languages Day.

This year the date coincided with a visit by our German exchange school. Pupils from the Hermannswerder Gymnasium in Potsdam, Germany, visited Prep School where they were interviewed by Year 8 pupils.

Meanwhile, younger Prep pupils visited the European Café set up in Maple Hall where they enjoyed a snack of croissants and hot chocolate - which of course they had to ask for in French or Spanish. Mr Clarkson, one of our Prep parents, was kind enough to fly back from Luxembourg to talk with the younger pupils about how important languages are in the wider world.

Sixth Formers visited Pre-Prep where the Year 2 children participated in a range of activities prepared by the Senior School students, giving them an exciting introduction to both German and French. They all enjoyed a French brunch followed by a European Feast at lunchtime.

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ccFThere is an old army phrase that states “if it ain’t raining it ain’t training”. This year’s CCF Field Day at Swynnerton had just enough of the former to make the latter a memorable rite of passage for our new recruits. It was hard to believe that they were only issued uniforms three weeks before the exercise as they enthusiastically rose to all manner of challenges from live firing to dealing with casualties, recovering stores from minefields; repairing armoured cars; and putting on their war faces to fight through an enemy position. The great success of the day was in no small part due to the professionalism shown by the NCOs and senior cadets who planned and executed their own stands, and marshalled the recruits between tasks.

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A joint group of over 50 AS and IBDP Lower Sixth Geography pupils travelled to Betws-Y-Coed in North Wales. At Llanrwst pupils studied flood management strategies in the Conwy valley. The AS pupils spent Saturday in the Upper Conwy valley where they

completed an investigation into river characteristics in the upper course of the river. The IBDP students travelled to the Nant Peris valley where they carried out data collection for their Internal Assessment on how the fluvial characteristics of a river change with

distance from the source.

The following day pupils investigated the formation of sand dunes in Harlech and later in Criccieth they looked at coastal management strategies.

Geographers Investigate

Bromsgrove School hosted the first round of the English Schools’ Athletics Association cross country cup.

In the Prep girls’ race Abi Saker set the pace from the front and kept her lead all the way round the course to win comfortably. Not far behind was Ellie Childs coming in 2nd place. Mollie Trow fought hard to secure 4th place and Niamh Donovan was a very close 5th. The two other team members, Claudia

Moberley and Charlotte Campbell, also finished sufficiently highly placed to give the girls’ team first position in the county.

In the Prep boys’ competition all six boys ran exceptionally well to finish in the top ten, Charlie Sapwell 2nd, Joe Houlcroft 4th, Nathan Boothroyd 5th, Sergey Marchenko 6th, Morgan Hammond 7th and Harry Liversidge 10th.

In the Senior School races both the girls’ and boys’ teams finished 2nd and qualified for the Midlands’ Finals in November.

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Foremarke Hall Invitational Tournament

ESSA First Round

The U13 girls’ hockey team played in the Foremarke Tournament. In the pool matches they finished in second place and went into a semi-final against Denstone A team. After 5 minutes golden goal extra time the match went to penalty flicks to decide the match, where Claudia Moberley and Megan Longden scored to beat Denstone by 2-1. In the final against Beeston Hockey Club both sides attacked well but it was Elouise Brookes who scored the only goal of the match giving Bromsgrove the trophy.

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The Inter-House Song Competition was held for the first time in the Arena. It may have lost some of the atmosphere but the acoustics were good and everyone could be ‘housed’ under one roof. It was almost like a concert performance.

Mr Fletcher – Director of Solihull Choral Society and organist to the University of

Birmingham - adjudicated an enthralling hour or so of 60s Number 1 hits and wittily summed up proceedings at the end.

We enjoyed ‘Hey Jude’ Housman Hall, ‘Surfin’ USA’ Lyttelton, ‘Walking Back to Happiness’ Mary Windsor, ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ Lupton, ‘Let’s Come Together’ Elmshurst, ‘I’m a Believer’

Thomas Cookes, ‘Sugar Sugar’ School, ‘Lady Madonna’ Walters, ‘All you Need is Love’ Hazeldene, ‘Let’s Twist Again’ Wendron-Gordon and ‘Hit the Road Jack’ Oakley.

Congratulatoins to Hazeldene (conducted by Charlotte Collie) and Walters (led by Oscar Barber-Fray) who jointly won the competition.

Riding Georgina and Henrietta Horsely-Gubbins continue to take the riding world by storm. They recently competed in the National Schools Equestrian Association qualifier at Hartpury College. Both ponies produced great clear rounds and Mr Binks and Henrietta were placed 5th out of 40. Both the girls were proud to be riding in our School colours.

Inter-House Singing Competition

Pumpkin Fun

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The Lower Fourths headed for the Malvern Hills for the annual walk over one of England’s loveliest ranges of hills. Our 153 pupils were enthusiastic, energetic and the vast majority displayed great determination to fulfil the objectives. The day comprised a range of challenges - effective team work, co-operation, communication skills, leadership and initiative.

Lower Fourth Walk Malvern

Mr Helmore arrived in Elmshurst House one evening laden with pumpkins and carving kits for an in-House pumpkin carving competition. Miss Hardy, from Mary Windsor, arrived to judge the tough competition, and after much scrutinising she decided it a joint win between Oscar, Osan and Samir Gurung (5th Form) and Anarag and Ben W (5th Form). Great fun was had by all in the House.

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Baking Sales A number of Houses in the Senior School held cake sales before half term to raise money for a variety of charities. Hazeldene put on a splendid spread in the Old Chapel and raised over £400 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Elmshurst held a great bake off which was judged by an old Elmshurst pupil - the boys made some lovely cakes and had fun raising money.

Little Red Riding Hood

Year 2 spent a day with the ‘History Man’ who transported them back to the dark and dangerous days of World War Two. They continued their learning Journey ‘We’ll Meet Again’ by handling genuine artefacts, joining the Home Guard, winding up the air-raid siren, using a stirrup pump and cracking wartime codes.

War Time

Year 1 have been very busy working on the theme of Little Red Riding Hood for their topic “Into the Woods”. They designed a “Get Well” card for Grandma using a computer programme, made a fruits of the forest crumble dish to put into Little Red Riding Hood’s basket for Grandma and as a finale, performed a sound story with words and actions for the other classes.

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Year 4 children spent a very enjoyable day at Blackwell Adventure. They all had a chance to practise their archery and orienteering skills, ready to apply to become one of Robin’s Merry Men later

in the term. Many also went up into the trees to have a go at the ‘Tree Trek’ obstacle course and those who were brave enough zipped down the zip wire, some even upside down.

Music Workshop Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had a fantastic music workshop with Music Man Ollie Heath to enhance their creative curriculum topics. Reception and Year 1 used instruments and body percussion to accompany the ‘Gruffalo’ story. Year 2 used rhythms and percussion to reinforce the importance of tolerance, friendship and equality linked to their World War Two topic.

Enchanted

Blackwell visit

Pupils in Years 3 and 4 drummed and danced ‘Into the Woods’ all day with inspirational music and songs from Music Man Ollie Heath. The characters from The Enchanted Wood and Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men featured within the singing and drumming and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The grand finale closed the day, with each year group teaching the others their musical chants and songs with accompaniments.

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u13 Rugby Tour Thirty seven boys from the U13 rugby squads travelled to Cardiff on a three day tour. In an action packed weekend, the boys kicked off the tour by visiting the Liberty Stadium, Swansea, to watch The Ospreys vs Benetton Treviso, Italy in a Heineken Cup match.

On the Saturday they played matches against Cowbridge Rugby Club. The A team lost to a strong home side with a final score of 10-29. The combined B and C team faced the Cowbridge U12As, a very strong team, who ran out comfortable winners.

The following day both teams played Dinas Powys Rugby Club. First up were the B/C team and despite going 0-10 behind early on, the boys re-grouped and ran out 36-20 winners in the end with Dominic Gardner scoring a hat trick of tries. The A team followed and, cheered on by their team mates and a large group of parents, the boys won 62-0.

U15 Ireland Rugby Tour The U15 squad travelled to Ireland for their tour. Starting in Dublin, their first match was against Castleknock. This was a closely fought match but Bromsgrove triumphed in the end with a 12-10 win. The next day the team enjoyed a day without a match to play themselves but watched the Heineken Cup tie between Munster and Edinburgh at Thomond Park. The atmosphere was great and everyone was thrilled as Munster beat Edinburgh 33-0. The final day saw the squad playing against Blackrock College, who hadn’t lost a game in three years. The enthusiastic crowd of 700 supporters spurred both teams to play their best and after a tough first half our team took the lead and won 19-6.

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Bromsgrovians Thames River Dinner Cruise

OB visit Brian Davies (Walters, 85–90) and his wife, Amanda, visited the School during a visit from their home in New Zealand. Brian was particularly impressed with the new sports facilities and had fun reminiscing about his time at Cobham and a short period when he was a boarder in Wendron-Gordon before he became a day boy in Walters.

Brian is interested in connecting with other OBs living in New Zealand, please email Jenny Bossard (jbossard@bromsgrove-school.co.uk) if you would like to make contact with him.

OB Christmas Event at The Chameleon

Please make a note in your diary that the Bromsgrovian Club will be having a Christmas Event at The Chameleon in Birmingham on Thursday, 13th December, 2012. Information will be sent out by the end of next week.

Sixty Old Bromsgrovians and friends cruised along the River Thames on Saturday 13th October.

The weather wasn’t the greatest but good enough for a few brave souls to go up on deck from time to time to better see the wonderful sights of London.

The food was good, the atmosphere was wonderful and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

All photos featured on the Bromsgrovian pages, including individual’s names and years, can be found on the Bromsgrovian Facebook site.

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Lucy Hayward (Hz 94-04) has just started medical school at the University of Gothenburg. After studying languages at Cambridge Lucy decided she really wanted to study medicine but that she also wanted to study abroad. Having made some links in Sweden through her first degree, she moved to Gothenburg to learn the language. She is delighted to have been accepted into the medical school and would recommend studying overseas to any current pupils who may be considering this.

Lucy’s brother Tom (Walters, 96-07) is also studying abroad, doing a Masters degree in Physics at Munich.

Gothenburg Study

Sarah Morris (TC 05 – 12), has returned from her trip to Madagascar which was sponsored by the Bromsgrovian Club through the Gauntlet Award.

Sarah travelled to Madagascar for a month where she had an exciting, as well as rewarding, time. Part of her time there was spent assisting in improving a primary school in Ivato. The group that Sarah was in had the task of helping to dig foundations for a new classroom, haul bricks and clear rubble, clear the grounds of litter and repaint an old classroom, whilst the local workmen built the new classroom.

If any current pupils or recent leavers want to find out more about the Gauntlet Award please contact Jenny Bossard at the School.

Gauntlet Award 2012

WeddingSixteen OBs attended Tom Robinson’s (Lu 94-99) wedding to Nora which was held on Shelter Island in the Hamptons, New York.

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Charlie Clemmow (Hz 97-04) is currently starring in Charley’s Aunt off-West End.

Charlie plays the role of Ela and the cast includes Jane Asher and Matthew Horne. Charley’s Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances. The play runs until 10th November at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark Street.

The annual OB Golf Society match against the school took place in October. The match was halved 2-2 so the OBs retain the Webb Cavill Trophy.

Annual OB Golf Society School Match

Charlie Clemmow’s Aunt

Book for Sale Offa’s Dyke Path - 17 circular walks from Welshpool to Hay-on-Wye

This is a delightful book, written by OB Jeff Lomax (W 49-54), covering the finest stretches of Offa’s Dyke as well as numerous castle and other remains from many periods of history. The walks vary from 5 -10 miles with many possibilities for shortening or combining walks. Small towns such as Knighton and Kington alternate with picturesque villages and fine stretches of open country.

Jeff, who is a telephone campaign donor, has only 80 copies of his book left and is donating the entire sale proceeds to support bursaries at Bromsgrove. At 144 pages long, the book would make a lovely Christmas present. The recommended retail price is £5.99, but we are selling it for £4 (plus postage and package).

Forthcoming Events 2012 - 2013NOVEMBER 2012Sunday 4th Prep School Firework display 5.00pm Tuesday 6th Prep School Remembrance Service 8.30am Saturday 10th Sixth Form Open DaySunday 11th Remembrance Day School Services 9.55am and 10.55amThursday 15th Prep School House Singing Competition, Routh Hall 8.40am Friday 16th Bromsgrove’s Got Talent, Drama Studio, 7.30pmMonday 19th 13+ Sports Scholarship Trials Tuesday 20th 16+ Sports Scholarship Trials Tuesday 20th IB Information Evening for 5th Form Parents, Routh Hall 7.30pmTuesday 20th The Fourth Annual Foundation Lecture, RAF Club London 7.30pm Thursday 22nd Next Step Conference (L6 parents), LRC 7.30pm Tuesday 27th Prep School Year 4 production ‘Hoodwinked’, Cobham Hall 6.00pm Tuesday 27th School Production ‘Cats’, The Artrix Theatre 7.00pm-10.30pmWednesday 28th School Production, ‘Cats’, The Artrix Theatre 7.00pm-10.30pmThursday 29th School Production, ‘Cats’, The Artrix Theatre 7.00pm-10.30pmFriday 30th Prep School Christmas Concert, Cobham Hall 7.00pm

DECEMBER 2012Saturday 1st Prep School Christmas Fair, Cobham Hall 12.30 - 3.00pm Sunday 2nd Advent Carol Service 5.30pmTuesday 4th Pre-Prep Reception Nativity, School Hall 9.15amTuesday 4th CCF Recruits Passing Out ParadeThursday 6th Pre-Prep Reception Nativity, School Hall 9.15amTuesday 11th Pre-Prep Christmas Service, Chapel 2.15pm Thursday 13th OB Chirstmas Event at The Chameleon, BirminghamThursday 13th Prep School Junior Carol Service, Chapel 2.45 - 3.45pmFriday 14th Prep School Senior Carol Service, Chapel 12.00 - 1.00pm Friday 14th Senior School Carol Services

JANUARY 2013Tuesday 8th Choral Society Rehearsals commence Routh Hall 6.00pm Wednesday 23rd Music Scholarship Auditions Thursday 24th Music Scholarship AuditionsFriday 25th Music Scholarship AuditionsSaturday 26th Sixth Form Courses Information morning Routh Hall 9.00amTuesday 29th 16+ Scholarship Exams and Interviews

FEBRUARY 2013Friday 1st 13+ Scholarship InterviewsWednesday 6th Year 8 drama production, Cobham Hall 7.00pm Thursday 7th Year 8 drama production, Cobham Hall 7.00pm Wednesday 27th Chamber Choir Sings Choral Evensong at the Royal Chapel Windsor Thursday 28th Fourth Form drama production ‘Witches’ Drama Studio 7.30pm

MARCH 2013Friday 1st Fourth Form drama production ‘Witches’ Drama Studio 7.30pmTuesday 5th Pop and Jazz Routh Hall 7.30pm Sunday 17th Mothering Sunday Family Service Chapel Thursday 21st Year 6 drama production, Cobham Hall 7.00pm Friday 22nd Year 6 drama production, Cobham Hall 7.00pm Monday 25th Rock of the Third Cobham Hall 4.45pm