Dear Parents and Carers

Another term flies by, another newsletter, another chance to reflect on so many exciting and enjoyable events and activities. Life seems to be full of quizzes and competitions just at the moment. I do not yet know how our Y10 biologists got on in the Big Quiz at Birmingham University today. Yesterday our geographers had great fun in a quiz with local schools using a format and questions provided by the Royal Geographical Society; we did not win, and we have to congratulate our sisters and neighbours. Earlier on this term we were thrilled to win back the West Midlands Chemistry Quiz trophy, enjoying our revenge over King Edward’s School who took the trophy from us last year. Once again we hosted our regional UK Maths Trust Quiz (called the Maths Team Challenge); once again we were allowed to enter an unofficial B team; unusually, our A team beat our B team; it also beat everyone else, knocking King Edwards High School for Girls into second place. (Our B team would have been 3rd if they had been an official entry.)

I can neatly link these quizzes to House competitions we have seen completed this term:

House quiz – Howard House rugby – Tudor House chess – Beaufort and Howard House swimming – Tudor

I must resist the temptation to run through the term’s calendar – Business Language Day, Oxford Schools Debating, Y9 Enterprise Day spring to mind. The visit of our German partners for their work experience, the Poetry and Music evening, the Big Bang Fair, the Tea-Time Concert, the residential Geography field trip. (I am not resisting very well.) And I cannot resist the temptation to mention three other residential trips. The ski trip to Austria was a superb experience (I feel sorry for those who were on their first ski trip – they will think the conditions are always like that and they are in for a lifetime of disappointment), with the usual praise being showered on your sons by the hoteliers and tour operators not merely for doing no harm but for being such polite, pleasant and considerate young men. The junior rugby and hockey tourists to Carlisle received just the same accolades from their hosts, though they did not receive just the same perfect weather conditions for their sports. And I am so looking forward to joining the senior rugby tour to Cornwall, my favourite county, where they take their amateur rugby very seriously, so we should be in for some cracking matches.

Well done the boys on their various fund-raising activities this term; I do not know how much the Just a Minute game raised, but I do know that the Y9 cake sale raised £76, while their poetry competition (which actually happened last term) raised £102. Red Nose Day was great fun too; I do not think I have ever seen the boys make so much effort with such enjoyable success for a non-uniform day before; looking out at them from the stage during assembly was a magnificent sight!

I see we (along with the other King Edward’s grammar schools) made the national press today for the extraordinary success of our Widening Access scheme. We offered 24 places to the top applicants on Pupil Premium (that is in effect those who have been on free school meals at any time in the last 6 years), provided they passed a threshold score. Despite all our efforts to ensure that pupils from all social and income groups in Birmingham should feel the grammar schools were for them, I remained sceptical that such an ambitious target could be reached any time soon. How wrong I was; we will indeed have 24 pupils on Pupil Premium joining us next year – that is 20%

compared to our more typical 5% or less. A tremendous outcome for our school and our city and, inplied by the Independent, for our country.

The current Y7 has 120 boys in it – the first year of our expansion. Over the next five years (including the current one) the school will grow by five forms and we need somewhere to teach them. It has been exciting today to see the contractors arrive on site to unload materials for advanced works which will take place over the Easter holidays and for three weeks beyond. (After the advanced works the contractor will leave us alone until after the exams.) 13 months from now they are due to have finished altogether. Two new labs, three new classrooms and associated offices and science prep rooms will be a wonderful new asset. The classrooms will have removable partitions, so that they can be opened out into one large meeting room, suitable for House meetings, for example.

This term saw the Annual General Meeting of the AFS, giving me the opportunity to express my gratitude to you for all you do for the school, giving time, talents and money. It is so appreciated by boys and staff alike. On the subject of the AFS, do not forget the Summer Party – see Anjum Stuart’s note and the flyer included in this newsletter.

By the time I write my next newsletter three year groups will have sat external exams. I wish them all the very best for those; I am confident they will do you, their parents, proud. Not to mention us, their teachers. I hope they get the right mixture of work and relaxation over Easter, and that their final weeks of revision will be effective. I know that many of our boys enjoy their exams – they find them a small price to pay for a few weeks off timetabled lessons at a time of year when the weather can be at its best. But I also know that for some it is a time of anxiety; I realise you parents will be doing all you can to encourage and support them through that, knowing how vital it is to keep a sense of balance and perspective. Good luck to all who are taking national exams next term!

I hope all of you will enjoy time together as families over Easter – have a wonderful holiday.

Yours sincerely

M J GarrodHeadmaster

E-NEWSLETTER – MARCH 2015

ChessJust a brief report this time. We haven’t had many League matches: the first team and the Under 13 team played Five Ways, and both won 5-1. There may be a bit of catching-up to do next term. There were two tournaments. In the Under 12 tournament in mid-January, five teams took part, and we won, with Qiyuan Chen, William Yang and Tarun Sangha winning both their games. In the Closed Quickplay in March, we scored 8/8 in the first round, then another 8/8 in the second. We then needed one more point to be certain of victory, and got it rather easily, although we only scored 5/8 in the third round. Well done to all who played in these two tournaments. We didn’t enter the Lightning or the Under 14 this year.

And then there was House Chess. The results in Round 1 were Beaufort 5, Howard 3; and Tudor 6, Seymour 2. In Round 2 we had Seymour 4½, Beaufort 3½; Howard 6, Tudor 2. So we entered Round 3 with all four houses level on one win each. It could have been an exciting evening, but Seymour quickly crumbled before a strong Howard attack, and Beaufort finished off Tudor almost as easily, despite wins for Tudor on the bottom two boards. The House championship was therefore shared by Beaufort and Howard.

AMR

Business Language DayUpon their return after half term, Year 9 were presented with the promise of a Business Language Day, organised by Mrs Wells, which constituted a full day taking part in workshops and attending talks in order for us to discover how people had made a career using their linguistic abilities.

The day began with the whole of the year filling the hall to listen to a speech presented by Ludovic (an international student from France) which focused on how languages allow him to explore the world. Following that was another speech from Sandra (another international student from Germany). Both of these speeches placed emphasis on how being multilingual allowed us to present and communicate more effectively when in another country.

Then we split up in to groups and returned to classrooms to listen to talks from people who worked in an industry, where their knowledge of multiple languages allowed them to excel. There were also presentations by students who were studying MFLs at university. After lunch, we regrouped and worked in teams to produce an advert for a new, healthy cereal, in our preferred language (but not English).

Finally, to conclude our day, we gathered in the hall to present the best adverts to decide a winner. Overall the day was lots of fun and I know we all learnt a lot from it. I’d like to thank, on behalf of Year 9, Mrs Wells and the rest of the MFL department for putting together an amazing day.

By George Hynes

Woodthorpe Primary School: French DayOn Thursday 12th March, Zikriya Bukhari, Prithvi Karthik, Ahmed Iqbal and I went to help out with the French Day at Woodthorpe Primary School. The day started with a taxi journey to the school, which was running a bit late. That meant we did not get there as early as we had hoped, and had less time to set up our presentation. The presentation went well, with a few technical glitches, all the children learnt a lot of facts and laughed at our videos. After the presentation and the assembly, we started playing fun games with all the years between Reception and Year 6. One of the games Mr Renault taught us to play was called ‘Ball on a bucket.’ To play this game, you take a (large-ish) bucket and turn it so that the hole is on the bottom. Then you get a ball (e.g. a tennis ball or a bouncy ball) and place it on the bucket. When a leader says ‘Allez-y’ you have to bounce the ball on the bucket while walking over to the other side of the room. If the ball touches the floor before you reach the end you have to start all over again! My favourite year group was probably Year 5 because they were funny and let me join in. Later in the day we went round the KS2 classes and the children asked Mr Renault lots of questions. We found lots of interesting facts about France like the fact that French classes start at 8 a.m. and can end at about 6 p.m. The best thing is that they do not have to wear school uniform but when some children were asked if they wanted to have a uniform they actually said yes!

The end of the day had come too early and we got the taxi back, arriving at school at about 3:30. That meant that I was able to get the bus and got home earlier!Merci à Monsieur Renault pour l'organisation de la journée. C'était génial et drôle.

Report by Miles Balderson, 7S.

British Informatics Olympiad - Matthew ElseEarlier this academic year a group of talented computing students in the school took part in the first round of the British Informatics Olympiad. This involved writing programs to solve three gruelling problems over three hours. Just to be in a position to make a reasonable attempt in this in this competition requires excellent logical thinking and coding skills and so all those who took part are to be commended. Particular congratulations go to Matthew Else in year 13. Matthew scored so highly in the first round he has been invited to compete in the national finals against 14 other top programmers from across the country. Matthew is an exceptionally able computer scientist who has completed extensive work experience with ARM and has an offer to study Computer Science at Cambridge. We wish him the very best in the remainder of the competition.

JJP

English

The English Department saw two senior debaters competing on a national level, with Sulamaan Rahim and Tom Meehan taking part in the Oxford Schools Debating competition in February.

The annual Poetry and Music Evening was a great success, with the theme of ‘movement’ eliciting some great performances from boys in years 7 and 8.

There were a number of author visits to the school. Young adult author Sally Gardner came to the school in February to talk about her books and how she started life as a writer. David Massey came to speak year 10 about his books Torn and Taken. There is also a planned visit to the school by Erin Lange on the 27th of March. Lange is the author of Butter and Dead Ends among others.

Also coming up next term is a theatre visit for year 10 to see Arthur Miller’s play ‘Death of a Salesman’ in Stratford on the 22nd of April. July will also see the annual Media Day, in which year 8 boys will have the opportunity to learn about different areas of the media, including newspapers, blogging and internet news, radio, television and documentaries.

DJW

Students Robotics

For the first time, Camp Hill Boys (with some input from Camp Hill Girls) are entering the Student Robotics competition run by current and former students from Southampton University. The competition involves teams designing and building a fully autonomous robot to compete in a game designed by the competition organisers.

The team of Umar Ahmed, Oscar Bocking, Matthew Else, Thomas Else, Jenny Lea (CHG), Joe Malt and Peter Watson, are currently designing and completing the robot. They are to test this robot in competition over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of April at Newbury Racecourse.

AJN

Engineering in Education Scheme

The young men, who are representing our school in the Engineering in Education Scheme, as you would have expected, stepped up to the mark and met the challenges head-on, especially in these times of trying conditions. They have worked very hard in the last few months and will see all their labours come to fruition in the next month.

During the time of the project they have been attending team meetings; these meetings have consisted of such things as planning, task allocation, liaising and communicating etc. They have also been working on completing their solutions to the engineering project set them by our support companies. The CDS project consists of the boys coming up with a spring compression device to aid assembly of the spill valve which is used within the fuel metering unit within the jet engine and the Eaton project is looking at a design for a reusable pallet to protect an expensive aerospace fuel pipe during the movement around the plan and to outside contractors.

The main area of focus for the team members at the moment is their technical report which will be sent off to their judging panel, from which they will be questioned about on the Celebration Day (30th of April at Cranmore Park, Solihull), the judging panel will consist of highly qualified engineers and company directors from the aforementioned companies. The Celebration Day will be a time when they do a presentation to the judging panel and display their project to the other dignitaries’ assembled there.

AJN

Maths Matters The British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1 results arrived just too late for inclusion in last term’s newsletter. This paper is aimed at the top 1000 students as selected by the Senior Maths Challenge, and we had six of those. All did well, with Sam England gaining a certificate of distinction and Muhammed Khan scoring full marks in four of the six questions to gain not only a distinction but a place in the second round. We also had the Senior Kangaroo results, and here, Thomas Else, Uthman Mahmud, David Johnson, Joel Elkin, Michael Jones, Oliver Paulin, Paul Gardner, Adam Titchen and Gaspard Bulso did well to obtain merits.

Moving on to January, the Maths Department gained a new member, Mr Azam, who took over some of Miss Hunt’s classes. He seems to be enjoying his role and I would like to thank him for all he has done (so far) for the department.

Having won the Regional “Final” at Camp Hill last term, our senior team, consisting of Giles Moss, Sam England, Muhammed Khan and Anthony Lim, travelled to London with Mr Thompson to take part in the national final. I think they only made three mistakes in the whole competition, but the standard is very high and they finished in a very creditable tenth place overall. Well done to them and many thanks to Mr Thompson for going with them and for his rigorous training schedule.

The individual challenge of the term was the Intermediate Challenge. This is also the largest, with about 260 entries, so the logistics of the morning had to be handled with military precision. This was done, and the papers sent off: when the results arrived, the boys had achieved 63 gold certificates, 96 silvers and 61 bronzes. Anthony Lim (scoring 130/135), Stephen Mander (scoring 123), Paul Gardner, Puney Jain, Jan Rudzki, Monim Wains, John Hayton, Sam Stansfield, Robert Hillier and Alex Byrne did extremely well, all qualifying for the three follow-up Intermediate Mathematical Olympiads, and in addition 48 boys qualified for one of two colours of kangaroo. As is frequently said in these articles, we await the results with interest.

Then we had the “privilege” of hosting the junior Team Mathematics Challenge regional “final”. Here, I must record a slight communication problem. For the Senior Final, I was sent templates of letters (well, e-mails) to send out to participating schools, which I adapted to suit Camp Hill. For this competition, the UKMT sent all the materials out from a central office, so I didn’t see them. I assumed the catering arrangements would be the same as for the senior competition, so arranged lunch for all competitors, only to find that they had been told to bring packed lunches. Never mind, nothing was wasted! As for the maths, we entered two teams. The B team, consisting of Alex Byrne, Alfie Green, Tommy Ransbotyn and Andrew Lim (see above) were recruited the previous day after one school dropped out.

The A team, which consisted of Sam Stansfield, Robert Hillier, Hao Yang and Neal Pankhania, had had the benefit of Mr Thompson’s rigorous training schedule, but for historical reasons I was not surprised when, after the group round and the cross number, the B team were 1 point ahead of the A team. The competition was as fierce as usual, and the girls from King Edward’s High School were 1 point ahead of them. The shuttle round sorted them out, though, and the A team pulled well ahead, to win the competition and a place in the national finals in London in June. The B team did very well to finish third!

The fourth round of the competition was a relay round which involved moving around the hall. This resulted in a health and safety issue and we had to record our first ever Maths injury when a boy from a visiting school was a bit over-enthusiastic about moving and cut his head open. Many thanks are due to Mrs Hollins in the office for her first aid!

The following day, a team of four Year 10s, Daniel Hill, John Hayton, Monim Wains and Jan Rudzki, went to the University of Birmingham to participate in a team competition called “Maths Feast”. An enjoyable afternoon found the boys participating in rounds titled Amuse-Bouche, Hors d’oeuvres, Entrée, Mains, Dessert and Petits Fours. (No, I don’t get it either.) They battled with equivalent algebraic expressions, comparisons, set theory, word problems, relays and origami. The origami

round, which involved making stackable Columbus cubes, was great fun, with John Hayton being our star paper folder. They were already certain of victory before the final round and thoroughly deserved their first place. Well done to them and thanks to Mr Bruten for taking them.

Next term, it’s the turn of the Junior Maths Challenge, which will be on Thursday 30 April. Finally, I would like to thank all my colleagues (and of course students) who have helped me make it through this term. Hopefully the “summer term” will bring only good news.

AMR

Music

The Spring Term is not long and so is a busy time for school musicians.

We were very pleased with another very good group of Associated Board and Trinity ‘grade’ examination results which we received early in term. Particularly pleasing is the high proportion of ‘distinction’ and ‘merit’ grades.

Name Form Instrument GradeDaniel Cole 9S French Horn 1 DistinctionGaren Boora 10X Alto Saxophone 2Anish Najran 8M Guitar 3 MeritAlexander Lee 9M Flute 3 MeritHamza Arshad 10Y Guitar 3 DistinctionSaksham Shah 8J Drum Kit 3 DistinctionJoshua Humphries 10X French Horn 4Chaithanya Gowda 8J Saxophone 4Alfie Green 9S Saxophone 4Alex Prins 10X Alto Saxophone 4 MeritMohammed Rajabali 11W Saxophone 4 MeritNirandeep Boora 11Z Saxophone 4 MeritJoseph Clark 8S Saxophone 4 MeritDaniel Faulkner-Moss 11Y Saxophone 5Albert Chang 9S Violin 5Thomas Isaac 10X Theory 5 MeritJohannes Beckett 10Z Trumpet 5 MeritGeorge Downing 11S Tuned Percussion 5 MeritSeth Dockery 7M Clarinet 5 DistinctionRyan Humphreys 9S Euphonium 5 DistinctionGeorge Hynes 9M Trumpet 6Joseph Gardner L6 Clarinet 6 DistinctionThomas Isaac 10X Violin 7 MeritMatthew Perrett 9J Piano 7 MeritAndrew Featherstone U6 Jazz Saxophone 7 DistinctionQuian Chen 7S Piano 8 MeritTimothy Naylor U2 Alto Saxophone 8 MeritJonathan Hart 11X Oboe 8 Distinction

Chao Chen L2 Piano 8 DistinctionRichard English U5 Double Bass 8 Distinction

We are also delighted to report that Harry Atkinson, who last term gained a very high mark in his grade 8 examination (146 out of 150 marks) was recently awarded a ‘Silver Award’ for this excellent result from The Associated Board of the Royal School of Music.

We maintain good links with Birmingham Music Service and our local ‘Music Hub’ which has a role in linking schools and other Arts organisations. We were delighted to take all our Year 7 pupils to a free CBSO concert in Symphony Hall organised by the Hub called ‘The CBSO Guide to the Orchestra’. The presentation and performances were excellent, and the boys really enjoyed the trip and got a lot out of it.

On 1st February our Concert Orchestra performed in Birmingham Cathedral. The event was a Festival Service of the Royal School of Church Music to celebrate the Cathedral’s tercentenary. The orchestra accompanied a massed RSCM choir of over 100 in music by Handel, Haydn, Stanford and Rutter. We had a very complimentary letter from the RSCM thanking us for our “significant contribution to the success of the event”.

The Poetry and Music Concert is now a regular fixture in the school calendar. It is a great opportunity for musicians to perform to an enthusiastic audience, and many boys offered to play. The musicians were Sam Gray (piano), Ibraheem Mohammed (guitar), Noah Lloyd (drum kit), Qiyuan Chen (flute), Toby Little (piano), Abhinash Nirantharakumar (euphonium), Miles Balderson (keyboard0, Joe Thompson (guitar) and Jamie Wen (guitar). There were also songs from the Chamber Choir plus a joint instrumental ensemble with our Year 10 GCSE group and Wheelers Lane Primary School musicians. The event was a great success.

In February we hold our Instrumental Parents Evening, an ideal opportunity for parents to meet our instrumental teachers and discuss their son’s progress. The evening was busy, and it was clear that parents and instrumental teachers found it very helpful.

Our Year 10 musicians have been very busy over the term, and I thank them for their support and enthusiasm. They studied ‘Jazz’ as part of the GCSE, and rehearsed an effective arrangement of ‘O when the Saints’. It was agreed to pay this at the GCSE Options Evening, and this was enjoyed by all.

The Year 10s next engagement was playing at the annual Education Sunday Service at our Parish Church, All Saint’s, King’s Heath. Here they accompanied the hymns, and played the Jazz piece as a ‘voluntary’ at the end. It was an enjoyable morning.

On 11th March we held our Teatime Concert. This short concert, held at 5pm, is a chance for our training groups and a few ensembles to perform. The pupils enjoy it as they are given tea before the concert; Parents enjoy it as it’s not too long! String Orchestra played first, and there was some very neat playing under the baton of Mr Richard Jones. There were then a selection of excellent junior solos and ensembles. Junior Guitar Ensemble gave a neat performance of ‘I Giorni’ by Einaudi, and there were fine solos from Qiyan Chen (flute) and Jamie Wen (violin). Trainig Wind Band finished off the evening with rousing versions of ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’ and ‘Twist and Shout’!

Towards the end of term I was pleased to be invited to take a group of our choir to a local Primary School to sing to them to try and generate more singing in their school. We took a minibus full of or

choir, and sang an selection of songs, which included the Folk Songs ‘Druken Sailor’ and ‘Scarborough Fair’, the Frist World War songs ‘Pack up your troubles’ and ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’ and finished with some spirituals. The Primary School pupils were enthusiastic, and enjoyed joining in with the last song ‘Silver Trumpet’.

At the end of term we have many pupils taking ‘grade’ music examinations, and, with the girls’school have one and half days of Associated Board exams an d one and a half days of Trinity exams. We wish the pupils the best of luck in these.

Many of our boys have entered for auditions to the excellent City of Birmingham Music Service Orchestras, Bands and Ensembles. The auditions are in May, and we wish them the best of luck with these.

We are pleased to maintain our links with Birmingham City University, as he have had a PGCE music student with us for a term most years. This year our student is Daniel Nock, and he has made an excellent start with his teaching. We wish him well in his time with us.

We are very pleased to hear of the success of our musical Old Boys:

Oliver Palmer carried on the tradition which he started whilst at school of getting together a choir at Christmas and Carol Singing around Harborne for charity. This Christmas £144.27 was raised for the Midland Air Ambulance.

Following his time studying music at Oxford as an organ scholar, David Todd is now a conductor and organist in London. We were delighted that he played for our Carol Service this year. (david-todd.co.uk)

Jamie Phillips has made a great success of his association with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, and following his time as ‘Assistant Conductor’ has now been appointed ‘Associate Conductor’. (jamie-phillips.com)

In the last week of term we still have a lot on. Our Year 11 GCSE pupils are practising hard as they have their performances and Creative Task. We also hold the House Music Competition, which will once again be adjudicated by Mr David Griffiths MA, FRCO.

School musicians now deserve a good rest, before we get together again next term. We look forward to next term’s concerts, and hope to see you there.

Senior Concert Tuesday 5 May 7pm CHG HallSummer Soireé Thursday 18 June 7pm CHB Hall

SFP

House Quiz Review 2015

The astronomical charts would suggest that Howard and Seymour would again fight out this year’s competition. Capably led by quiz luminaries Sulamaan Rahim and Nathan McClelland; after many years of friendly rivalry, could they mould their respective houses into championship winning units? Which house would cast a shadow over the other one?

In November, first blood went to Howard who snatched the senior honours with a 35-33 victory over Seymour in the final decider, mainly thanks to the lightning buzzing of the captain. In the intermediate section, Howard suffered a gravitational wobble against Beaufort but then recovered to beat Tudor and Seymour and steal a lead of two wins going into the final series of fixtures.

It was the Junior competitors over the past three weeks who needed to wrap up the victory for the Blue Wave. A defeat to Seymour in the first fixture, thanks to magnificent buzzing from Ajay John, threw Howard out of orbit and meant that the Golden Ticket could still snatch overall victory, a second victory for Seymour over Beaufort meant that they could still finish up winners, however a win for Howard against Tudor meant that the championship could only be shared. It came to the final fixtures to determine the Junior honours, Seymour were denied by the odd point to Tudor in the last round and Howard’s strength totally eclipsed Beaufort. After a mini crisis, the Blue Planet had again emerged from the darkness to share the Junior title with Seymour and Tudor.

This left the overall standings as follows:

Beaufort and Tudor – joint 3rd Place – the penumbras

Seymour – 2nd Place – the umbra

Nathan will have to take umbrage as the corona goes to Howard

Apologies for the astronomically bad puns, but it was the week of the eclipse.

GNH

AFS Summer Party

Dear Parents

After the Easter break you will receive the flyer for the Summer Party which will be held on Saturday, May 16th. It looks like it will be a great evening filled with music and laughter with the added benefit that you will be able to shine your halo - all the profits from the evening will go to the AFS which supports your sons' after school activities, printing of the Chronicle Magazine and many, many other vital items that the school cannot always afford in these difficult times.

I do hope that you can come along and, remember, tickets are not limited to parents so bring your friends along too. Even if you cannot come, you can contribute by donating a raffle prize to the school office - wine, chocolates, vouchers/unwanted presents etc. or if you have a business, a promotional offer etc. We have limited places so hurry, hurry! I look forward to seeing you on the night.

Thank you, on behalf of the AFS, for all your support!

Anjum Stuart (Chair of the AFS)

RESULTS SUMMARY

TEAMS PLAYED WON DRAWN LOST FOR AGAINST

RUGBY1 st XV 16 5 0 11 283 3832 nd XV 7 3 0 4 108 189U/16 9 5 0 4 272 167U/15B

204

71

00

133

21858

553131

U/14B

193

131

10

52

54061

41677

U/13BC

1853

1121

000

732

46410326

28210376

U/12BCD

151086

7253

0002

8831

283130148192

33333088122

HOCKEY1 st XI 18 5 2 11 33 492 nd XI 17 1 1 15 6 62U/15 7 4 0 3 23 12U/14 5 0 1 4 4 13BASKETBALLU/14 8 7 0 1 170 68

U/13 8 6 0 2 208 123FOOTBALL1 st XI 12 2 1 9 8 422 nd XI 6 1 1 4 7 14BADMINTONU/18 1 0 0 1 8 16U/17 1 0 0 1 14 18U/16 2 1 0 1 5 5U/15 1 1 0 0 20 12U/14 3 2 0 1 9 6

1 st XV Rugby I am afraid that 2015, from a senior rugby perspective, has offered precious little to report so far. We have only played four games since Christmas and, unfortunately, we have only won a quarter of them. However, it was our most recent game that saw us bounce back in style and record a handsome victory over King Edward’s School, Nuneaton. This is a side that we had contrived to lose to earlier in the season. None of us can still quite believe how we managed it, but back in September we were outmuscled, outflanked and outperformed. This time we played to our full potential and clearly demonstrated the journey we have been on this season. We are now a far superior side to the one we were turning out at the start of the season and this is largely due to the commitment of a core of players who have trained exceptionally hard and demonstrated tremendous spirit and support of one another. It also demonstrates the power of ‘triangle runs’ – if you want to know about them, you need to come to senior rugby training.So, forgive me for glossing over the three defeats (Adams, Vesey and Stratford); let’s focus on the feast of running rugby that saw us run out 79-5 winners against K.E. Nuneaton. In many respects we demonstrated the attributes of the international teams that we have enjoyed watching in the recent Six-Nations Championship. The raw attacking prowess of Wales; the physicality of Ireland; the never-say-die attitude of Italy; the casual indifference towards the big occasion of France; and the capacity to concede tries against all the odds of England. We had it all. Scotland also played in the Six-Nations Championship.It was nice to see the wily old campaigner, Joe Cullen, edging out the young pretender, Cameron Steel, three tries to two. And this friendly rivalry is indicative of how the older players have helped to bring on the younger lads this year. Even the forwards got in on the action and Will Stenson grabbed a brace to round off a superb season. Giles Moss, like a young Sergio Parisse, captained charismatically but failed to get on the score sheet.In spite of our relative lack of 2015 rugby, we still have our highlight of the season to look forward to. We depart for Cornwall at Easter for the annual tour. We hope to find good rugby and a chance to round off in style a season which has been a struggle at times (but always enjoyable). We also hope to find nice pasties.I will report back on the tour and the season again as a whole in more detail in the Chronicle. I certainly hope to be adding three additional marks in the victories column, but I’m sure that, whatever the results, we will have a great tour. I would like to express my thanks to the players for their commitment and good humour throughout the season. I would also like to thank all of those who have supported the team as well as my co-coaches. I would especially like to thank Mr Carman for all of his hard work in organising the tour. We just need to repay his efforts with a few good performances now! I hope you enjoy the cricket season. Pre-season rugby training starts soon.

AJC

Rugby: 2 nd XV U16 XV

To those of you who may care to read this article; a few words of apology for the relative brevity of the piece but the fact remains that a single match against Adams Grammar School represents the terms playing experience to date. Nonetheless, despite this, the players have been extremely loyal

and committed to continue training throughout the period, in anticipation of the end of season tour to Cornwall. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all players who represent the two teams, for their dedication and good humour over a rather barren period. We very much hope that the matches on tour turn out to be competitive and enjoyable and that all involved gain from the experience. Good luck to you on tour and for the seasons ahead.

PC

U15 Rugby Report

The U15 rugby team added two wins and five losses to their record this term. Heavy defeats against Adams Grammar School and Stratford were followed by a close encounter against Southam. Having beaten Southam earlier in the year, Camp Hill were on course to do the double as they led 7-5 through a first half Murtaza Nomani try. However Southam’s quality backline eventually shone through as a quick lineout resulted in a score in the corner and a 12-7 defeat for Camp Hill.

Unfortunately the weather beat Camp Hill over the next couple of weeks as winnable matches against Coundon Court and Newcastle Under Lyme were both cancelled. However this unarranged mid-season break seemed to revitalise the team as they put in the performance of the season against Fairfax. Right from the start it was clear that this was a match Camp Hill were simply not going to allow themselves to lose. Solid defence from the whole team and tactical kicking from Will Butler and Tom Perry led to a 17-5 victory. Man of the match Sid Sharma scored two tries with one coming from Tom Perry.

The final three matches of the season took place during the annual tour to Carlisle. Cockermouth school were first up and Camp Hill started well against the gale force wind, a Zulfiqar Khan try securing a 5-5 score line at halftime. Unfortunately some poor decision making in the second half led to a 17-5 win for Cockermouth. The second match against Wigton RFC saw the boys produce one of the performances of the season as tries from Sid Sharma (2) and Hamza Quereshi, who was later awarded with try of the tour, secured a 17-0 victory. The final match against Keswick RFC was a tough encounter against some bigger and stronger players. Camp Hill were relentless in their defensive work but eventually succumbed to a 24-5 defeat.

Players of the tour were Zulfiqar Khan and Johannes Beckett who starred in both attack and defence whereas players of the season went to the hardworking Sid Sharma and Tom Perry. Aaditya Dhiran was given the most improved player award, having become a pivotal player in the team this season. Finally three players have been ‘ever present’, playing every game since the start of year 7. These players are Sid Sharma, Nick Surr and Garen Boora and they can’t be commended enough for this achievement.

Well done to all of the boys who have played a part within the squad in what has been a thoroughly enjoyable season. I wish you all the best for your senior rugby careers.

TMS

U14 RUGBY

This has been a fine season for the Year 9 squad. They have achieved the strongest stats of all the school teams and played some entertaining rugby. They are a side that will always score tries and have improved defensively, although they still concede more than one would like.

Reflections now as the season ends should be positive after such a successful time. The boys were starved of much game time in the first part of the spring term where only two games were played – victory in a high scoring game against Adams and a lacklustre defeat to Stratford. Fortunes took an upward turn in March. Fairfax came to CHB and played well, thereby bringing out the best in the U14 team. Two tries from Kamil Khan and one from Dylan Rogers provided a 17-7 victory, setting the team up nicely for the annual tour to Cumbria.

In Carlisle we have often been met by some very tough weather and playing conditions. This year we were fortunate to play in the dry, albeit with gale force winds! We began at Cockermouth School and recorded a pleasing 24-15 success. Max Mulligan crossed twice with Jake Tucker and Adam Li also scoring. The second game was against Wigton RFC and the 19-5 scoreline was a fair one. Will Lyons led the way with a brace, Kamil adding a third. At Carlisle RFC on the final morning we found ourselves placed on the club’s 1st XV pitch, the boys looked rather lost on the huge playing area! Once the game started though, it was all Camp Hill as we totally dominated our hosts and produced some of the best rugby and touchdowns of the season to entertain a large crowd of supporters from home and away. Kamil scored two, with others from Rhys Rogers, Uwais Hafizal, Dylan and Will. A fine end to both tour and season, much enjoyed by Dylan’s grandparents, Len and Valerie, who supported the weekend and assure me they will recruit for 2016!

Kamil deserves further praise for his all-round play and for the amazing contribution of 41 tries. Adam Li was awarded the player of the season accolade for the forwards, Dylan for the backs. Jake scooped the most improved prize. Max has captained the team, at least on the occasions when he has not been injured. The side has a better balance with Max at 10 and I really hope he has a longer run of games next year - although he is back on crutches at time of writing after another mishap on the playground!

Adam has been the only ever present player, appearing in all 19 games. Dylan, Jake, Kamil, Ed Dempsey, Ossama Chihani and Josh Hall missed just one.

My thanks to all the players for their efforts and to the parents who have followed their fortunes since September. Enjoy a relaxing summer and we’ll see you in six months.

MWD

Badminton

This term we had two fixtures with KES which were in some way a return for matches in 2014.

The teams split into U17 and U15, with a total of 18 boys involved.

In the U15 match we dominated proceedings, playing some excellent singles and doubles games, showing astute tactical awareness. Isara Mahalekam led a squad made up of Abbas Mirza, Sachin Subramonian, Sami Hamsho, Dylan Rogers, Harry Wells, Jamie Wen, Shrey Boora, Sam Howarth and Sreekar Somalayar. Sachin and Dylan remained undefeated and we triumphed 20-12.

The U17 match was a much closer affair. In fact it was a rather enthralling contest as for every win or two we posted, KES hit back with one or two of their own. After the first round of games the score was 6-all, after round two 12-all. We then invented two further doubles rounds and the score progressed to 14-all, then 14-18….to KES. An exciting evening. Well done to Amit Chaudhari, Parvesh Konda, Jay Chandarana, Shreshth Malik, Fazal Shah, Aditya Ravindranath, Nishant Chaudhri and Madhav Ramesh.

All these boys will be returning next year and we hope to get further fixtures for them to play in.

MWD

KS3 Basketball:

The U13 and U14 basketball teams have finished their league campaigns this term, both having had very successful seasons.

The first match of the term saw a poor performance from Camp Hill but this fortunately didn’t matter too much as they still managed a 29-18 victory against Wheeler’s Lane. The next two matches took place against tough opposition in the form of Baverstock and Sheldon Heath. However Camp Hill were up to the challenge and some good positional play and shooting by Joe Clark and Michael James Thomas helped them to 29-8 and 32-10 victories. The final match took place against Bishop Challenor and although this was the toughest fixture of the campaign, it was undoubtedly the team’s best performance as some great defensive play led to a 24-18 win. Sachin Subramonian controlled matches well and was also the overall top scorer with 40 points. Honourable mentions also go to Tommy Ransbotyn, Leon Zhang and Jacob Reeves who made appearances in all matches and regularly contributed baskets. The team will now go on to face the winners of the North Birmingham league on the finals day after Easter.

The U14 team have played three matches this term. After despatching Landau Forte with ease in the first match of the term, Baverstock were next up and were much tougher opposition. Both teams showed some great defensive play but struggled to break the other down in attack. In a low scoring affair Baverstock won 14-8, with only Alex Byrne able to do any damage for Camp Hill as he scored 8 points. The final league match against Kings Heath saw Camp Hill return to winning ways as a great performance in the final quarter saw the match finish at 31-13. Owais Akram contributed 6 points and Danny Blyth 8 in a good team performance. Rumun Ark was the only player to appear in every match and can be commended for his commitment to the team.

The U14s also qualified to represent the local area in the Birmingham Winter Games. Although given a tough group the team managed 3 wins and only 2 losses. Although this wasn’t quite enough to go

through to the semi-finals, it certainly did cement their position as one of the best teams in Birmingham.

The U12s have also recently started basketball training and if their enthusiasm for the sport continues they will be sure to become a strong outfit in the future. Special mentions go to Sanjay Suresh, Yusof Elsherbiny and Patrick Achusiogu for the ability that they have shown so far.

TMS

U.13 XV Rugby

P 18 W 11 L 7

The U.13XVs have had an excellent season achieving notable victories against Old Swinford Hospital 28-14, King Henry’s Coventry 22-15, KE Aston 35-0, Bishop Vesey 34-5 and KE Stratford 19-17. In addition to this, it is worth pointing out that 5 of the matches lost were by the narrowest of margins.

It is particularly pleasing to note that a number of the team’s wins have come against teams that they lost to as U.12s. Although certain individual players deserve special praise for their contributions during the season, there is no doubt that the team’s success has been built upon a team ethic, a determined attitude in both defence and attack and a superb attitude towards training.

Captain Michael James Thomas has done a really good job as captain; well organised off the field and leading by example on it. He has been ably supported in the pack by a number of other players who have regularly turned in impressive performances. Matt Dixon in the front row has been ever present and Pierre Lee at hooker has stepped up from the ‘B’ team last year to cement an ‘A’ team place. Louis Parmar, Zaman Khan and in the latter part of the season, Simon Halstead have occupied the second row positions; all showing some potential for the future. However, the real strength of the forward unit has been the back row comprising at different times of: Jason Tahiri, Sam Hope, Joe Clarke and Henry Moreau Smith. Particular praise must go to Joe and Henry who have both regularly turned in ‘man of the match’ performances with their skill, commitment and work rate.

Another key member of the squad has been Tommy Ramsbotyn at scrum half who has provided an important link between forwards and backs. The fly half berth has been occupied by two players: Oliver Ebeneezer and Sachin Subramonian who have both been able to launch the team’s backline with good distribution in attack. Josh Birch and Judah Daniels have formed an effective centre partnership which has created many try scoring opportunites. Judah is another player to emerge from last year’s ‘B’ team to be this year’s leading try scorer with 21 tries. There has been strong competition for places on the wing with Bradley Williams, Bilal Hussein, Keiron Taylor and latterly Ryan McNamee all making a contribution, but Leon Zhang has been a main source of tries with a final total of 13.

The team can be proud of their achievements this year and with more players beginning to show greater commitment to training, they have the potential for further development as a squad. Can I take this opportunity to thank the regular band of supporters who have turned out to offer their encouragement form the touchline.

CMJ

U12 Rugby Report

The U12 rugby squad has made huge progress this term. After a number of difficult losses against more experienced teams in the autumn term they have produced some excellent wins in recent weeks. The first few games of the term saw two losses to Adams Grammar and Stratford and a decisive victory away against Southam in their second meeting of the year. The next three games were disappointingly cancelled due to frozen pitches but this didn’t dishearten the boys and they came back fighting at the end of February to beat Old Swinford away 32-22. Considering the scale of their loss to this very team back in October this was a huge confidence booster for the boys and has proved to be a decisive victory which shows just how much they have improved this season. Another clear win at home against Fairfax (47-5) and an away win against Kings Norton Boys’ (26-0) has really helped secure the confidence of the U12 A team. The season ended with the annual Greater Birmingham Tournament against four other local schools. Their early loss to Fiveways by only one try was disappointing for the boys who felt they could have taken that match after being camped in the opposition’s territory for most of the first half. They then went on to beat Aston and lose to their old foes Bishop Vesey’s before a resounding win over King Edward’s after a strong performance in the second half. Overall third place was awarded and with much improved performances against the likes of Fiveways they can expect to improve on that in future years. Each player has made tremendous individual contributions to the team this season and it is impossible to single out individuals for special praise as each game really has been a team effort. It has been great to see some boys join the team late in the season and make remarkable progress in a very short space of time, most notably Chetan Biju and Usmaan Nadeem. Well done to all the boys who have taken part this season.

DJE

1 st XI Hockey

This term started well with a convincing 7-0 victory over Old Swinford giving the team a chance to try moves out and switch positions round having not played for over three weeks. The next game, however, was not so fruitful. In a closely fought game against Solihull, the opposition were just too clinical in front of goal managing to hit the back of the net on three occasions.

Putting this disappointment behind them Camp Hill went to King Henrys, always an exciting fixture. Taking a two goal lead with some direct attacking play was the perfect start for Camp Hill but King Henrys fought back to tie the game 2-2. The confidence gained from this game put the team in a determined mood to play Queen Marys, running out 1-0 winners by the final whistle.

The last two games of the season both ended in defeat but with the team playing some excellent hockey, still finishing the season on a high. As the team lose a number of upper sixth this year , next season will be another tough, but hopefully rewarding, time.

TJW

2nd XI Hockey ReportFollowing our strong finish to the Autumn Term, the second team were hopeful of becoming a much more competitive outfit in the second half of the season. Despite losing our first few games to Lawrence Sheriff, Five Ways and Solihull, we took many positives from these performances. A more settled backline meant that we only conceded 8 goals, despite having conceded 26 goals in our previous five matches. The most pleasing aspect of these performances, however, was the form of our strikers, with a couple of goals from Azeem Hanjra trebling our total tally for the season. Our fourth match of the term saw us take on King Henry VIII School. As we went into half time only 1-0 down, we were hopeful of securing a positive result, and Zeyad Khalil duly found some scintillating form, scoring the two goals which gave us our first win of the season. After half term, our form stalled a little, as we lost our next three games, conceding 13 without reply. At the time of writing, we have one more match to play this season, against Aston. Prior to this game, our record for the season shows us having played 16, won 1, drawn 1 and lost 14, conceding 61 goals and scoring 6. Our joint top goal scorers were Zeyad Khalil and Azeem Hanjra with 2 each. Despite the results, the boys can be proud of their efforts and the positive attitude they showed in the face of often far superior opposition. Next season looks like it could be more successful, with a strong core of younger players emerging throughout the season.

Oliver Paulin U6

Under 15 Hockey

With only 5 games played this term the U15s did not have much chance to develop their team play. The first game ended with a satisfying 7-0 win over Old Swinford. The team managed to play some nice passing and moving hockey from start to finish. Unfortunately, two weeks later Aston did the same to us. Camp Hill struggled to create any chances and frustratingly conceded too many.

The tour gave the team a chance to finish the term on a high. After closely losing the first came against Cockermouth 2-1, Camp Hill played their best hockey of the year beating Ullswater and Austin Friars 4-0 and 3-1 respectively. Both Mr Hardy and Mr Smith were very impressed with the U15s teamwork and determination and hopefully this will encourage them as they aim to make their mark in the senior teams next year.

TJW

Under 14 Hockey

At the start of the year in September 2014 there was not yet an U14 hockey team, but a few weeks into the term, the trials took place and the squad for this season was selected. As we still don’t have

an actual hockey pitch, the team played on the tennis courts, which we soon found out was not the best surface for hockey.

Unfortunately, the first match against Old Swinford ended in a 2-1 loss, and most of this was because we had not had much practice on astroturf which was much easier to play on than the tennis courts the team had become accustomed to. After the first game we were more aware of our strengths and weaknesses and we were able to address them in our fortnightly games session at the Olton training fields.

As the season progressed we soon started to develop as a team and we had a tight second game against Old Swinford. However the next game was a much harder match, which the team lost 4-0, in the only game they hadn’t scored in. In that game, however, we realised what we needed to do to beat King Henry’s the next time we played them. Accordingly, in our second game against King Henry’s we had our best result of the season, our first draw 1-1. This is a great example of how all the individuals in the team and the team as a whole has developed since our first game. We ended the term with a loss against Aston but we were without our captain and it showed to some degree.

The whole team performed to the best of their ability and had a total score of 4 goals in our five games, all being scored by captain Abaan Butt and all being assisted by vice-captain Alex Byrne.

The season has been a promising start for the team and we look to further matches and development next year.

The team would like to thank Mr Azam for his undying devotion to the development of the team, and Mr Duncan for acquiring the training grounds for practice.

Abaan Butt

1 st XI Football

The 1st XI have played 5 matches this term, which makes 12 games for the season; that equals the record for the most games in a season set in 2011-12. We are very grateful to Mr Speake for his constant efforts to get us fixtures.

Sadly, we lost all this term’s matches, with a combined score of 21 goals conceded and 2 scored (by Joe McWilliam and Max O’Brien). Overall, our statistics are played 12, won 2, drawn 1, lost 9, goals for 8 and goals against 41. Those statistics are very harsh on us and certainly do not on their own paint an accurate picture. The last game of the season, against John Henry Newman Catholic College about sums it up. For the first half we dominated the game, in terms both of possession and territory, but the goals just would not come. JHN started the second half much more strongly than they finished the first and the game was more even for quarter of an hour or so. JHN scored twice in that time. We started to respond to their raised game, only to concede a third. As the game neared an end we began to take more control again, but still did not get the goals we deserved. That 3-0 result so misrepresents the game, just as the stats above misrepresent the season.

In recognition of its rising importance within our games curriculum, football was granted the privilege of awarding full colours and half colours. Previously, only half colours were on offer. Two

players have completed two seasons with the 1st XI, and were awarded full colours: Connor Burns and Luke Greatrex. Indeed, Luke’s contribution this season as captain has been superb; his commitment on the field has always been 100%, his reliability at training and practices has been exemplary; he has frequently been our best player in matches; he has encouraged others and consistently led by example.

Half colours were awarded to Kabir Choudry, Arun Chowdhury, Hanan Hashami, Aly-Raza Ismail, Michael Jones, Joe McWilliam, James Ternent and Josh Williams.

Unusually, this team has been overwhelmingly dominated by Y13 players, with only one Y12 player, Max O’Brien, guaranteed a place in the starting line-up. It will be interesting building a nearly completely new team next season. In the meantime, I must say goodbye to so many players. They have been a truly delightful team to work with – always cheerful, always sporting, always supportive of each other. I wish them all the best in the future.

A final thank you to the coach, Mr Speake. He is responsible for finding us so many matches to play, and he is responsible for the way in which we play them. He is unfailing in his optimism and encouragement.

MJG

2 nd XI Football

The 2nd XI have played 2 games this term, against The King’s School Worcester and Old Swinford Hospital. We lost the first, 2-0, and drew the second, 1-1 (with Talvin Rai the scorer). That brings the season’s total to played 6, won 1, drawn 1, lost 4, goals for 8, goals against 14.

The team has played with great heart all season; it is always hard for the 2 nd XI to find stability and this season was no exception – 22 different players represented the school in this team. Nonetheless, there was often a tremendous team spirit and the boys’ encouragement of one another and determination was an impressive feature. Oscar McNaughton was captain for this term’s games and continued to lead by example. Talvin Rai thoroughly deserved his goal this term; Motaz Haider has not scored this term, but has continued to trouble defences.

This has been a very enjoyable team to manage. I look forward to a number of them stepping up to the 1st XI next season; I am optimistic that they will do so with assurance.

MJG

English Schools Cross Country Following a strong performance at the County Championships in January, Oliver Paulin was selected to compete for the West Midlands Schools team at the prestigious English Schools Cross Country Championships; the highlight of any young athlete’s calendar. This year, the championships took place on Saturday 14th March in Witton Park, Blackburn. After a quick walk around the race route it soon became clear that this was going to be a very tough course, as it involved three big laps around what was known as the ‘Saucer’, which involved running up what was virtually a small mountain.

Following a frantic first lap around the flat ‘large small lap’, the pace dropped dramatically as the field began its first ascent of the ‘Saucer’. Due to taking the apparently unconventional tactic of staring at a pace which he could maintain for more than 200m, Oliver found himself further back than he would have expected, so had to work his way through the field on the long downhill sections. As the race entered the final lap, the brutal gradient of the climb had clearly had a large effect on many athletes, with the pace slowing further, and a number of boys requiring oxygen from the mountain rescue service situated halfway up the hill. As the pace slowed, Oliver’s endurance showed as he finished strongly through the field, to come home in 99 th position, out of a field of over 300 of the country’s best young runners, and complete the 6.7km course in 27:06, as the third finisher in a talented West Midlands team. A cold in the run up to the event meant that Oliver did not finish quite as highly as he would have liked, but this was still an improvement on last year’s 130th position, and was a pleasing return to the top 100.

Swimming

Despite being less busy for swimming events, the spring term is always set to be an exciting one with the prospect of school swimmers finally swimming against one another to compete for their house. Our first school gala of the term was our most successful. We were swimming at St Martin’s against three other schools in a fast paced event where each swim was only one length of the pool. The competition flew by, and Camp hill surged ahead of the other schools with many first and second place finishes in some extremely close races. By finishing first in four out of five age groups, it was a convincing win that the team can draw confidence from when competing against stronger opponents.

The highlight of the term was the House Swimming Gala, due to the competitiveness of the event and the atmosphere created inside the aquatics centre. The swimming gala follows the swimming standards, which are compulsory for Years 7 to 10, and decides the overall swimming championship by pitting the fastest swimmers in each house against each other. In each age group the swimmer who collects the most points is the Victor Ludorum, and this honour goes to Ross Evans of Y7, Joe Clark and Leon Zhang of Y8, for the intermediates, Daniel Higgins of Y10 and in the seniors, Matija Novovic of Y12.

The points between the top three teams: Tudor, Howard and Beaufort were tight as the gala came to a close with the relays. Since the relays are worth double points for each position there is a huge potential to make a comeback. Tudor managed to come out on top of the relays, and so cemented their existing lead to win the gala.

Joe McElroy (U1)

Sports Leaders:

The year 10 sports leaders have continued to complete the level 2 Award this term. The boys have worked hard to complete theoretical modules throughout their attendance at weekly lunchtime sessions. In addition to this all 11 of the leaders have been assisting and leading a number of events and clubs at school.

Tom Perry, Muhammad Ali and Miles Smith have been helping with year 7 rugby training and it is no coincidence that this team has picked up dramatically this term. Rohan Sharma and Liam Garside have continued to play a part in training the successful year 8 rugby team.

Weekly lunchtime hockey sessions have been running for year 8 pupils, led by Dan Higgins, Chris Marshall, Victor Kimani and Isara Mahelakram. This has been a popular session and the year 8 pupils have already made an unbelievable amount of progress in this sport.

Adam Ahmed and Isara Mahelakram have also been pivotal in coaching and helping to select the year 7 cricket team. The leaders have provided the boys with some invaluable pre-season training and they look set to hit the ground running next term.

In addition to this all 11 sports leaders have led two ‘multi-skills’ sessions for year 3 pupils from Colmore Junior school. The Colmore pupils had a chance to take part in football, rounders, rugby and bench ball. The leaders all showed a terrific attitude during these sessions and teachers from Colmore commented on their maturity, confidence and teaching ability!

TMS

House Reports

Beaufort House

Reigning House Champions Beaufort have again seen strong performances across the age groups this term.

The chess and quiz tournaments have been taking place gradually across the term. Beaufort finished with two wins out of three in the chess following strong performances from Qiyuan Chen, John Hayton and Nathan Moyle. The quiz wasn’t quite as successful but the intermediate team led by Anthony Lim did manage to put together 2 wins out of a possible 3.

The swimming gala took place in February and as usual the Beaufort swimmers put forward a strong account of themselves. Ross Evans (year 7) and Matija Novovic (year 12) won the victor ludorum for their respective age groups and there were also event wins for Henry Belai and Michael James-Thomas. The relay events weren’t quite as successful but a second placed finish overall in the gala was still thoroughly deserved.

The rugby championship was also concluded this term. The year 8s finished joint second on 2 points with the star performer award going to Esrom Abreham whereas the senior 7s team also managed second place, influenced by Wes Blackhurst and Samson Gahir. However the year 7s were the top Beaufort rugby team with three wins out of three. Ross Evans was the top try scorer with Richard Amoshe, Dylan Rees and Rajkaran Tiwana working tirelessly throughout each match. Overall Beaufort again finished in second place in the rugby event.

At the time of writing the hockey and music events are still to take place this term and the House are hoping that Tim Naylor, Victor Kimani and Azeem Hanjra can guide their troops to victory within each of these events.

TMS

Howard House Report

The astronomical charts would suggest that Howard and Seymour would again fight out this year’s competition. Capably led by quiz luminaries Sulamaan Rahim and Nathan McClelland; after many years of friendly rivalry, could they mould their respective houses into championship winning units? Which house would cast a shadow over the other one?

In November, first blood went to Howard who snatched the senior honours with a 35-33 victory over Seymour in the final decider, mainly thanks to the lightning buzzing of the captain. In the intermediate section, Howard suffered a gravitational wobble against Beaufort but then recovered to beat Tudor and Seymour and steal a lead of two wins going into the final series of fixtures.

It was the Junior competitors over the past three weeks who needed to wrap up the victory for the Blue Wave. A defeat to Seymour in the first fixture, thanks to magnificent buzzing from Ajay John, threw Howard out of orbit and meant that the Golden Ticket could still snatch overall victory, a second victory for Seymour over Beaufort meant that they could still finish up winners, however a win for Howard against Tudor meant that the championship could only be shared. It came to the final fixtures to determine the Junior honours, Seymour were denied by the odd point to Tudor in the last round and Howard’s strength totally eclipsed Beaufort. After a mini crisis, the Blue Planet had again emerged from the darkness to share the Junior title with Seymour and Tudor.

This left the overall standings as follows:

Beaufort and Tudor – joint 3rd Place – the penumbras

Seymour – 2nd Place – the umbra

Nathan will have to take umbrage as the corona goes to Howard

Apologies for the astronomically bad puns, but it was the week of the eclipse.

GNH

Seymour

This term’s results have been disappointing for Seymour. Fourth place in two of the year’s big events, Swimming and Rugby, left the boys downhearted. However, the boys that competed in these events gave 100%. The other houses, unfortunately, were too strong. On a more positive note, Seymour managed to come away with one win in the chess for the first time in a number of years. This meant that Seymour finished joint third in the Chess competition.

The best result came in the Quiz. With the Intermediates and Seniors having already competed, the Junior team battled hard to come out with two wins out of three. This placed us securely into second position overall. A great effort from the Quizzers. With two more events still to finish the term the

boys need to fight hard then look ahead to the summer term. With a determined effort they could gain some silverware and bring Seymour back into the championship.

TJW

Tudor HouseWell what can be said about this term, I will say this that the lads of Tudor house have once again done us proud! This term started off very slowly, with the only hi-lights I suppose being my long and dreary house assemblies. Eventually when the January exam season was out of the way, then the house activities got under way with gusto. The Chess and the concluding of the House Quiz from last term got underway. The Chess team ably led by Oliver Whitfield, once again showed their dedication to the cause, by doing battle over three evenings in late January and early February. The players achieved a joint third in the overall Chess.

The two sections of the Quiz still to be completed this term were for the Intermediate and the Junior sections. After the Seniors had not won any rounds of their quiz we as a house were on an uphill task, but our Inters and Juniors engaged their brains and gained enough victories to raise us to share joint third with three victories between them.

The next big inter house competition was the swimming, which saw the boys from years 7 to 10 do us proud by taking part in their swimming standards, this gave us a great platform for the overall gala. I am very pleased with all members of the house; because of cause overall competitions can’t be won such as the cross country, swimming and athletics cannot be won without all doing their best. The gala showed that the house have some strong swimmers at this time spread across the age groups, I must say well done to all members who took part in the gala and achieved a marvellous win overall. Aditya Bajpai of Yr7 came 3rd in his age group for the Victor Ludorum, Joe Clark and Leon Zhang of Yr8 came joint 1st in their age group whilst Tom Weaver of Yr11 came joint 2nd in the Senior age group.

The rugby competition was also to be completed this term and we had high hopes of pushing for the overall rugby after our previous strong showing with the Inters and Seniors in the first term. The Yr8 team performed exceedingly well and won all three of their games, which meant that the Rugby Championship could be claimed before the final Yr7 competition, the Seniors took to the field knowing that three wins would clinch the rugby, this they did with a nail biting victory over Beaufort in their last game. The Yr7 took to the field for their tournament and struggled to develop their game from the set plays, but they will have learnt from this experience. Credit must go to all members of the house who took part in the rugby tournament, as we amassed a very impressive 22 out of the 30 points on offer.

There are many positives we can take away from the term as we look towards the summer term. At the time of writing this report the Hockey and Music competitions are still to be completed, I therefore wish them well in their endeavours. We can now look forward to and expect strong performances in the remaining events such as house athletics, cricket and tennis. Well done and good luck.

AJN

Key Dates 2015

Saturday 28/03/15 - 12/04/15

Easter Holiday

Monday 13/04/15 - 17/04/15

Y12 and Y13 Chemistry and Physics ISAs

Thursday 16/04/15 Year 13 A2 ISA Physics TEST 2Thursday 16/04/15 Year 12 AS Physics ISA TEST 2Friday 17/04/15 Year 12 AS Physics ISA TEST 2Monday 20/04/15 -

24/04/15Y12 Biology EMPA

Tuesday 21/04/15 Y8 Parents' EveningWednesday 22/04/15 Y10 Death of a Salesman - StratfordWednesday 22/04/15 Salters Chemistry FestivalMonday 27/04/15 -

01/05/15Y13 Biology EMPA

Thursday 30/04/15 EES Celebration DayThursday 30/04/15 Junior Maths ChallengeMonday 04/05/15 Bank HolidayThursday 07/05/15 Y12 Biology Exam. HallFriday 08/05/15 Y13 Biology Exam. HallMonday 11/05/15 Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10 Review 5 on NetworkTuesday 12/05/15 Czech Trip Parents' EveningThursday 14/05/15 Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10 Review 5 to ParentsFriday 22/05/15 -

26/05/15Y10 Battlefields trip

Monday 25/05/15 - 29/05/15

Summer half-term

Monday 01/06/15 - 05/06/15

Y8 + Y10 Exam Week

Monday 08/06/15 - 12/06/15

Y7 + Y9 Exam Week

Monday 08/06/15 - 12/06/15

Y8 Residential trip to North Wales

Monday 15/06/15 Teacher DayTuesday 16/06/15 Teacher DayMonday 22/06/15 Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10 Exam Results on NetworkMonday 22/06/15 Y11 Work Experience ConferenceMonday 22/06/15 Y11 Book ReturnWednesday 24/06/15 -

28/06/15St David's Rock Climbing trip

Thursday 25/06/15 - 05/07/15

German Work Experience Trip

Friday 26/06/15 Timberley Graduation in Hall 6-7 pmMonday 29/06/15 Y9 Forensic DayTuesday 30/06/15 Y6 Parents' Induction eveningTuesday 30/06/15 Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10 F.T. Exam Comments on NetworkTuesday 30/06/15 Y12 Ecton Mine trip.ERAWednesday 01/07/15 Y6 Induction DayFriday 03/07/15 Y12 (Y11) Induction Day

Monday 06/07/15 Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10 Exam Report to ParentsWednesday 08/07/15 Sports DayThursday 09/07/15 Y10 Parents' EveningFriday 10/07/15 JET Trip. PROVISIONALMonday 13/07/15 Y7 and Y8 Presentation EveningTuesday 14/07/15 Y9 and Y10 Presentation EveningWednesday 15/07/15 Sports Day reserveFriday 17/07/15 -

25/07/15Czech Trip

Friday 17/07/15 Summer term ends