The Lion - Issue 72 by Bablake

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News and Views from Bablake School

A Rainbow Cinderella

o celebrate our partnership with Harrismith Secondary School, we staged a gala performance of ‘A Rainbow Cinderella’ just before February half-term. The musical was written and directed by Ian Appleby, our former Head of English, and produced by Mrs Skilton, our Harrismith link coordinator. The production was last seen in 2015 in South Africa and was the sixth musical that Mr Appleby has created especially for Harrismith. Mr Appleby’s aim is to provide Harrismith pupils with a unique opportunity to take part in music and drama and we have supported the production in the past by raising money for costumes.This year we wanted to raise awareness and support by staging our own version and the outcome proved a huge success! Tickets were sold out and extra chairs had to be laid on in the Theatre.The performances were outstanding, including the ‘Staffettes’ with their rendition of ‘’Jonny’s Girl” and a fantastic time was had by all.Thank you to the many staff, pupils and parents who contributed to the success of the evening, which raised over £1600.

Issue 72 | Spring 2017

Bablake News

Languages Club fun! Members of the Junior Languages Club have been enjoying themselves whilst making some fabulous seasonal goodies. Before Christmas, much fun was had making crackers and tags for presents, although things did get a little sticky when decorating a Bûche de Noël! Since Christmas, the group has learnt about the traditions of Karneval and Mardi Gras and pupils researched carefully before designing and creating some stunning masks. Many thanks to the Bablake Parents’ Association for their kind donation which enables many of these events to take place. Junior Languages Club runs every Monday at 1.30pm in the Languages Block and new members are always welcome.

Rotary

Senior Youth Speaks In the recent Rotary Senior Youth Speaks competition, our team; Abinaya Muraleetharan, Dasha Sutton and Zahrah Jahangir, spoke about the negative influence of modern music on children. They beat KHVIII to win the Area Final and made it through to the District Final.Well done to all three girls for speaking so confidently. In the intermediate category, Rebecca Asbury, Bhavan Amar and Jhodi Thandi took part and spoke about the problem of evil.They were placed second and should feel proud of their performance.

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Geobites In December the Geography Society produced the first copy of its annual magazine ‘Geobites’. Pupils worked throughout the Autumn Term to research and write articles on a number of topics. The theme of this publication was Hong Kong, inspired by Lucas Bennett’s photograph of the harbour. Jody Wong reflected on her Extended Project findings regarding the sustainability of the city, whilst Jack Poppit gave us the ‘low down’ on Hong Kong. Other articles included the results of a survey compiled by Zara Richards about Bablake’s favourite place, an analysis of what the Trump Presidency might mean for climate change by William Bastock, and a reflection on the world migration crisis by Kogulan Vipulan. The magazine was a real team effort with pupils acting as both researchers and writers, and individuals such as Benjamin Crosby helping with desk top publishing and the design of the logo.We are delighted with the result and all pupils can access the publication through the Geography pages of the VLE.

Foxcroft Science Essay Competition! Lower Sixth pupil Deepra Sinha was delighted to make it through as one of the four finalists in the Foxcroft Science Essay Competition 2017. She wrote a fascinating essay outlining the impact of Wilhelm Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays.This was addressing the title “Choose a Nobel Prize Winning Scientist:Why is their work so significant for humanity?”. Deepra gave a thorough account of both the diagnostic and therapeutic applications of X-rays in medicine. She presented a summary of her work to an audience of academics and answered some very taxing questions. Her calm responses in a public forum were most commendable and Dr Knight, her Chemistry Teacher, is convinced that she would have no problems at the Dispatch Box for Prime Minister’s Questions, or at a university interview at the very least!

Bablake School

Bablake News

Ecosystems As part of Second Year Science, pupils make their own pond ecosystem. 2BGW pupils recently became proud parents, as their daphnia were so happy in their watery ecosystem that they reproduced! Daphnia are more commonly known as water fleas and are one of the most common crustaceans to be found in lakes, ponds and quiet streams.These tiny animals are usually less than 3mm in size, so you could put dozens of them on a single fingernail! An ecosystem is a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. Under the guidance of Mr Bagga and Mr Burns, pupils worked in groups to make a sandy bed in an old coffee jar; they added a few stones, water plants, pond water and finally added a few water fleas and replaced the top.This closed system was left over half term, and the green plants photosynthesised while the daphnia reproduced.

Bablake News

Police Visit

By Areej Raza (4NDG) On Friday 3 March, PCSO Ellie Parry came to talk to Fourth and Fifth Year pupils as part of the Life Choices programme about staying safe when out and about. She offered a lot of advice on how to be more aware and avoid potentially difficult situations: • Try to avoid antisocial behaviour on the streets, such as shouting loudly to friends. Older people can be quite nervous when groups of young people are shouting; actions that might seem funny to you and your friends are not seen as funny by others, especially more vulnerable members of the community. • Know that the age of criminal responsibility is ten years, which means that you could be arrested if you do something illegal and continued bad behaviour could give you a criminal record. In the future, when you want to apply for university or a job, employers will look at your criminal record as well as your job application. If they find something unappealing, they may reject your application altogether regardless of anything else. • When you’re outside with friends, it is safer to stay within your group. It should be everyone’s responsibility to look out for friends and ensure that everyone is safe getting home.This includes booking taxis from reputable taxi firms and never taking a lift from a stranger. If you do find yourself on your own, especially when it’s dark, stick to well-lit streets, let parents know where you are and when to expect you home.

Miss Holyman, Co-ordinator of Junior Science said:

“The eggs of the daphnia were difficult to spot at first, but with the help of a hand lens and a desk lamp they were spotted, and the keen eyes of the Second Years found immature and mature daphnia. It was wonderful to see the excitement of the class as they realised how successful their ecosystems were. All of the ecosystems have been emptied into the Biology pond, and no animals were harmed in this experiment.” 4

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• Avoid wearing earphones when out and about; if you can’t hear what is going on around you, you will be less ready to react if, for example, a group of people is approaching from behind with the intention of doing you harm. Also, the white design of Apple earphones immediately alerts potential criminals that you are most likely to be carrying an Apple device. Apple phones are expensive and by wearing Apple earphones, you are telling anyone who may be watching you that you are carrying an expensive item. Also, many thieves can take a phone out of your back pocket without you even realising, so always keep your phone in an “out of sight” pocket or sealed bag.

Charity

Let us introduce you to a new member of our Bablake Family – a Guide Dog puppy named Blake. Impressive work by our Charity Enterprise Group alongside whole-school fundraising meant that we were able to name our own puppy and follow its progress throughout the training process. Blake visited us for the first time a few weeks ago and we are looking forward to seeing him again soon!

Creative

Writing Club Three members of Creative Writing Club (which meets on Tuesdays at 1.30pm in E6) have had their fantastic minisagas selected for publication in an anthology. They entered the Young Writers’ ‘Welcome to Wonderland’ competition which challenged them to create an imaginary fictional world, and then use this to create a story in no more than 100 words. Congratulations to Joshua Sangster, Sadie Aspinall and Anna Shirley.

A Path into the Mind of an Amnesiac by Anna Shirley The scent of smoke wafted through the air; the bearded man that lay in the clearing awoke. His horror-stricken face stared down at his dripping, red stained hands. Blood.The trees strained their bony fingers to touch the man; that was how he first noticed the crimson handprints littering the trunks.The glowing inferno circled him, creeping closer as the unmistakable sound of a pained scream echoed over the crackling fire.Two breaks in the blaze created two paths equally spaced apart. He had to escape the burning world around him; find out the truth. He paused. ‘Go left!’ …

I’m not a robot by Sadie Aspinall Greetings. I’m called Jasmina. I live in Techtopia. If you’re wondering where that is, then that’s tough. It’s a secret. I desperately want to tell you as I’m completely alone here.Yep. No-one but me. I mean,I’ve got my Cytonbots, but there not exactly `friends’. As their president, I feel forced to do what they say. Sometimes I wish I had my human brain back. My Cybot mind keeps getting the better of me. If you manage to break the sonic barrier, I’ll be waiting.Waiting behind the locked door to the robotic utopia of Techtopia. Farewell.… Bablake School

Bablake News

Bablake Hosts National STEM Competition Prize Giving Tech Camp visited Bablake during British Science Week to award prizes for a National STEM competition designed to encourage invention and ideas in computing, science and engineering. Forty UK schools and 1,400 entrants took part, with 64 pupils reaching the final. Successful Bablake pupils included Tilly Shields (Bablake Junior), who was awarded a certificate and UV torch kit for reaching the final 64 and Celestine Dal (Bablake), who was awarded one of 17 Special Mention T shirts with her torch kit. Gilie Hart (Bablake Junior) and Narankar Sehmi (Bablake) were each one of only 17 overall winners with their ‘Microwhisk’ and ‘Uver{fumigate/purify}’ entries respectively and were awarded a day course on one of the innovative and exciting courses being run by Tech Camp at Bablake in the last two weeks of July 2017. Techcamp.org.uk will be at Bablake for two weeks in the summer (week of 17th July and of 24th July) and pupils will be able to build robots, work on inventions and computer games as they learn coding on Tech Camp’s exciting courses. All single-day and week-long courses are open to pupils aged 9 -17. Design your own computer games or design and build your own Bluetooth speakers, create your own gadgets in ‘Gadget Factory’ and even give a robot a brain transplant! Prices start at £120 and pupils take all creations home. For more information and bookings go to www.techcamp.org.uk.

Bablake News

Eats, Shoots & Leaves You may know of Lynne Truss’s (or is it Truss’?) book: Eats, Shoots & Leaves that argues for a zero tolerance approach to punctuation errors by asking us to visualise a panda. We know that a panda eats shoots and leaves. If we insert a comma into this sentence, it changes the meaning entirely. If we write: ‘a panda eats, shoots and leaves’ we visualise a panda with a smoking gun in his paw as he leaves a saloon! Punctuation is powerful. Grammar matters. Literacy skills underpin all subjects. Understanding what we have read is essential. Knowing that words do not always have the same word class allows us to understand meaning more deeply. For example, when you write: ‘I love reading and I can feel the love in the room’ - love is a verb and an abstract noun in the same sentence! If you allow yourself to play with language and enjoy the meanings and sounds it makes, the process is fun. I enjoy watching pupils’ confidence grow when they see their spelling scores improve because they come week after week to Eats, Shoots & Leaves and practise.The practice of attending any school club on a weekly basis will ensure your skills improve. If your skills improve in literacy, they will enhance your understanding of all your subjects. I love this club and I am proud of its members because they are like pandas arming themselves with grammar.They are empowered.

Crest Award Crest Award is a qualification administered by the British Association of Science.The awards are designed for pupils to research a maths, engineering or science based question that is of interest to them. They may work on their own or in small groups, researching and completing their own experiments.They then communicate what they have found to an outside assessor from ‘Create a Future’ at the end of the Spring Term. Here at Bablake, amazing advances are being made as part of the Crest Award Scheme which not only helps our pupils think about a STEM career but is also used in the classroom. One example is that of Zahrah Jahangir in 4MGB. Zahrah started her journey wanting to research stem cells in beauty creams, but quickly became interested in the use of stem cells in cancer treatments. She started by discussing her ideas with Mrs Prowse, a member of the Chemistry Department who had a career working in laboratories looking at blood cells, and came up with a plan to research stem cells in school. Her outline plan was checked for safety and she enlisted the help of Dr Adams, who was a cancer researcher before joining Bablake this

year as Physics Technician. Miss Case, Biology Technician, sourced an animal bone which was so fresh that it was likely to have stem cells in it and researched a number of methods for seeing stem cells. Miss Case sent the femur to the Design Technology Department where it was carefully sliced so that Zahrah could get to the bone marrow (the most likely place to find the animal stem cells). She then made a smear slide from the bone marrow, and despite healthy scepticism from experts, Zara was able to see the cells. Looking closely at the image you can see red blood cells, white blood cells and one animal stem cell. Miss Holyman, who mentors Crest at Bablake said: “It is so exciting to push the frontiers of what is possible in a school

lab and to see the pupils collaborate so effectively with their peers as well as experts to create such a wonderful project. I am delighted with all the learning that has taken place as part of Crest and am looking forward to pupils showcasing their findings at the end of this term as part of their assessment.” Pupils may also use their Crest Award as the ‘skills’ element of their Duke of Edinburgh award.To complete their projects, each pupil conducted experiments and researched using the internet, text books and interviews with professionals; they then created a report to explain what they had discovered, conveying their passion for science and engineering.This year we have 21 pupils being assessed.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves • Second Year club meets in E3 every Wednesday 1.00-1.30pm (Mrs Duke) • Third Year club meets in E2 every Thursday 1.30-2.00pm (Mrs Reddish) • Fourth Year club meets in E4 every Friday 1.05-1.35pm (Mrs Lynch)

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Bablake School

Bablake Out and About

Engineering

Education Scheme The Lower Sixth Engineering Education Scheme team consisting of Abilan Vijayaratnam, Luke Wyman, Lucie Barnes and Tommy Knight, has been busy working with sponsor company, Arup, since October. Early morning breakfast meetings each week have seen them develop a flood alleviation scheme and ring road for the village of Little Hadham on the A120. During their residential workshop at Birmingham University in December, they produced a working model showing their solution. In May they will present to a team of engineers at their assessment day in Solihull.

Design Technology

Winner: Jasmine Print

Following another successful Reading Week, the Design Technology Department made presentations in recognition of outstanding work.

The annual trip to Morgan Cars in Malvern took place during halfterm in February.Twelve enthusiastic pupils spent an interesting couple of hours on a guided tour of the factory, seeing a range of skills used to produce these luxury and iconic sports cars to support work done in the examination syllabuses. A further group of petrol heads and car fanatics is looking forward to the next Design Technology trip in October, when we will head to Italy to see car production at Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani.

Shells were set a design task to research the Memphis design era of the 1980s; once they had identified key aspects, they had to produce an item reflecting the style. Second Year pupils took on a similar task based around the iconic Bauhaus design movement.Winners were Jasmine Print (Shell ACP) and Maya Koria (2SEW).

Winner: Maya Koria

The 3D printer has been working overtime recently as GCSE pupils make models of their coursework.With the final deadline just around the corner it will be interesting to see the real artefacts produced based on these models.

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F1 In Schools This year Bablake entered three teams from the Fifth Year and Lower Sixth into the F1 in Schools competition. The teams have worked hard over the last ten months to raise sponsorship whilst designing, manufacturing and testing their cars, and on Thursday 26th January they attended the Central Regional Final in Birmingham. It was a very successful day, with ‘Atomic Force’ winning the Judge’s Recommendation Award, ‘Falcons’ taking second place in the Development Class, and ‘Liberty’ achieving overall first place in the Professional Class, as well as awards for Fastest Car and Best Engineered Car.To top it all, Liberty won a place in the National Final which will take place at Silverstone.We wish them every success!

The end of year Art and DT exhibition w ill take place on Thursday 22 June and will have all ex amination work on display.

German

Christmas Markets Trip Feeling festive after the Carol Service, 46 pupils led by Mr West headed for the Christmas Markets in Cologne. After a long coach journey through the night, the group arrived tired, but excited in Cologne.There was lots to see and pupils sampled the delights of many of the Christmas markets, with a firm favourite being the ‘Markt der Engel’ - Market of Angels. There were visits to the Sport and Olympia Museum, the Chocolate Museum, the ‘Haus der Geschichte’ (House of History) in Bonn and the RheinEnergie Stadium, home of 1.FC Köln. Laden with bags full of chocolate and Haribo goodies, decorations and presents for family and friends, the group arrived back at Bablake with just enough time to wrap them before Christmas! Many thanks to Mr West, Mrs Scott-Burt, Mr Kalsi, Mrs Skilton, Mrs Lenihan and Mr Chahal.

Bablake School

Bablake Arts & Music

Shakespeare

festival

Bablake pupils fall in love with… The Bard On the 14th February our Third Year pupils gathered in the Theatre for a dramatic encounter with the great William Shakespeare. They had all spent months reading Shakespearean extracts, selecting characters, blocking scenes and learning lines. Now was the time to perform and compete with each other on a theatrical level.

Bablake Arts & Music

The festival was a fun and creative experience which showcased the impressive talents of our pupils.Their understanding and joy of Shakespeare was obvious, making it a delight to watch. Pupils transformed from being reluctant on stage to thoroughly enjoying the buzz of performance.They were exposed to a range of famous and infamous characters from Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies, and now have a much deeper understanding of the Bard. The power of committing Shakespeare’s work to memory is very powerful. Mrs Kate Duke – Head of English

In their Drama lessons and with support from their English teachers, they had worked collaboratively to create a performance piece about which they were passionate. Some pupils were inspired by previous Bablake productions such as Othello, while others revisited the Second Year text, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Many others decided to embark upon a play that they had not met before and in many ways this was the aim of the Shakespeare Festival: an opportunity for pupils to take a risk and work independently away from the classroom. All of the year group rose to the challenge and thrived on the dramatic experience. 3PLN began the Festival with a provocative interpretation of Act 1 Scene 1 of Macbeth. As the morning continued, pupils performed extracts from Titus Andronicus, Othello and The Tempest.We witnessed a whole class ensemble of Macbeth, a creative and highly amusing adaptation of Much Ado about Nothing and poignant scenes from Romeo and Juliet. It was quite a morning! After the festival, four intrepid reporters (Dominic Reeves, Giselle Pinto, Nithisa Sivaruban and Rebecca Asbury) went out into the Bablake community to hear what the actors and the judges thought about their morning of theatre. Here is what they had to say:

I learnt how to perform a soliloquy, which is something I did not have much experience of before. It was a challenge being alone on stage; really scary but I loved it. Harvey Thomas-Benton, 3SLH

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Bablake School

Bablake Arts & Music

The best part of the Festival was working collectively with the class on The Tempest. As an actor, it was a challenge to work dramatically on the many different roles I was playing. Matt Floyd, 3ISK

“I loved the roaring but I now know never to trust Manveer with learning lines!” Brian Deng, 3PLN

The Festival showed me new dramatic techniques, gave me the confidence to showcase my acting ability and the means to express myself through Drama as well as offering me a new and positive view on Shakespeare. Bhavan Amar, 3CAM

“The Festival was really great. It was a pity not to be there for the whole production, but it was wonderful to see everybody getting involved and to see so many different talents.

“I felt quite honoured to be included, partially due to the fact that I am new to the school.

The whole process, which began in October, enabled pupils to understand Shakespeare further and to appreciate dramatic performances as well as the skills that come with them.”

The whole year group had to be responsible and well-prepared – essential skills for success. Lots of it was prepared in their own time, so it was good to see them take on this responsibility and work together. Overall, it was brilliant and I’m very proud of the whole year group.”

I was very impressed by the whole event.The quality of drama was incredibly high and the response to the task was different and interesting for each class.The variation between groups was amazing with whole class performances like Macbeth, comedic groups like Much Ado about Nothing and solo performances from plays like Titus Andronicus. Such an impressive range.”

Mr Malcolm Wyatt – Theatre Technician

Mr Jeremy Hobday – Head of Third Year

Mr Andrew Wright – Deputy Head

“I am very proud of the pupils who were involved, and I think it is one of the best things we have seen in the Theatre at Bablake.

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“I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Shakespeare Festival as both a teacher and a member of the audience. I hadn’t experienced an event in which a whole year group perform Shakespeare at any school I’ve ever worked at before. I was staggered by the quality of drama and the confident understanding of such challenging texts. Throughout the experience there was a great sense of fun and enjoyment. By the end of the festival, the year group had been exposed to such a wide range of high quality Shakespeare: that can only be a great thing.”

“The most important thing I took away from the festival was the importance of advanced teamwork skills; our form’s performance was a collective showcase of 3JM, so the success of our interpretation of Macbeth rested upon our ability to work together. On the day, it was difficult for me to act in front of lots of people as I am not usually completely comfortable doing so, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Mr Ben Wall

Taryn Wilson, 3JM Bablake School

Bablake Arts & Music

ABRSM

Examination Results The Music Department held its regular December session for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music at the end of the Autumn Term.We had over 20 candidates from both Junior and Senior Schools and had all stages of exam from Prep Test piano for some of our youngest pupils right up to Grade 8 harp (Sixth Former Avni Kant).Two pupils had especially good results; Imogen Lane from Junior School got a distinction for her grade 1 violin and Harry Scott-Burt (Shell JMG) got a high distinction for his grade 7 piano. Congratulations to all of our pupils who took their exam in this session; it’s a pleasure to see you all progress! Our next session will be held in school at the beginning of May.

Organ

Concert We were thrilled to welcome Mr Trevor Tipple back into school on Thursday 19th January, for the inaugural concert of the splendid chamber organ he built for the Rehearsal Room. The Music Department had the instrument built to our organ teacher’s specification and it is a really beautiful example of a small organ for practice, teaching and chamber music.We were delighted that three organ pupils, Harry Scott-Burt (ShJMG), Alex Hyde (4MGB) and Sathvika Krishnan (4LBA) performed solos on the instrument, followed by our organ teacher Dr Scott-Burt performing a Sammartini organ concerto, accompanied by the senior string ensemble.The department is enormously grateful to Trevor Tipple for his ongoing care and advice for both this new instrument and the refurbished Compton organ in the Main Hall.

Gamelan

The Music Department was thrilled to host another successful two weeks with a Gamelan in our Rehearsal Room.The Gamelan is a collection of Indonesian percussion instruments and has been again provided by Mr John Pawson to the great delight of our Second Year pupils who have been looking at the topic of World Music this term.The amazing collection has also been played by some of our Junior School pupils and the Fourth Year GCSE class as well as 150 visiting Year 5 children from local primary schools.

The Lion | Spring 2017

Bablake Arts & Music

St John’s Lunchtime Concerts

A Musical Gift

We continued our series of lunchtime concerts at St John’s Church on December 8th, performing a selection of Christmas choral music, along with a specially commissioned fanfare for brass and organ, with which we opened the school carol service the following week. Dr Nicholas Scott-Burt, a composer who teaches piano and

Temiloluwa Lawal of Shell LJM has given the Music Department a fantastic gift! Her family is from Nigeria, and when she heard that our African shekere had broken, she offered to get a new one when her family next visited. She provided us with not one, but two lovely new instruments which our Shell pupils will really enjoy using during our project on African music.

organ in the department, was asked by Mr Cooper to write a fanfare for the Cathedral service to preface the first carol O Come All Ye Faithful, and it was a splendid opening to our service. We continue the St John’s series with the first public concert for our senior string quartet on Friday 5th May (concerts are at 1:10pm and are free).

CBSO courses Two pupils from the Music Department have been in involved in courses run by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra this term; Ellie Aitchison (violin) and Anna White (cello) took part in ‘Project Remix’ and the CBSO Youth Orchestra respectively. Both girls thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would recommend the projects to any pupils who play an orchestral instrument – check out future project plans at www.cbso.co.uk.

Rotary Young Musician of the Year The Music Department once again hosted the Rotary Club Young Musician of the Year ‘club’ round last term.There were some great performances from pupils from several schools, and we were very pleased that two of our Music Scholars won vocal and instrumental categories; Howard Weyman took the vocal prize and Harry Scott-Burt the instrumental. Both musicians performed again at the district final in Stourbridge at the beginning of March, and while both attracted some very favourable comments from the adjudicator, sadly neither made it through to the next round of the competition.We look forward to lots more entries to this in the Autumn Term from our talented pupils.

Arts Visits In January, the Art Department took a small group of A level pupils to the canal basin studios in Coventry to meet Adie Blundell, a well-known local artist. Mr Blundell gave a tour of his studio and delivered a thorough talk on the ideas behind his work, its development and what motivates and drives him creatively. His work, which has been shown at The Herbert Art Gallery amongst other places, defies classification and often takes the form of intricately layered drawings and multimedia sculptural creations. Then in February, as part of the A level exam preparations, the department took pupils to Oxford for a resourcegathering session at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Ashmolean Museum and Oxford Natural History Museum. Whilst there, they were able to see a variety of artefacts and art ranging from 20th century paintings to dinosaur skeletons, through to totem poles and shrunken heads. In addition to this there was also the opportunity to photographically record the stunning architecture of Oxford and partake of a little retail therapy. Bablake School

Bablake Sport

England Icehockey Many congratulations to Third Year pupil Rhodes Mitchell-King who has received his second England call up for ice hockey. Rhodes, who has played for Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey Academy since 2010, has gained selection for this season’s England U14 Ice Hockey Team. He plays mainly as a defender, but is also well known for his offensive skills. He trains regularly at Coventry’s SkyDome and plays games all over the north of England as Coventry Blaze is deemed

a northern club by the England Ice Hockey Association (EIHA). Recent EIHA selection follows on from Rhodes’ experience playing for the England U13 team in Quebec last February. Both of England’s tournament games took place in the amazing 18,500 seater Videotron Centre, which has excellent modern facilities and all the razzmatazz of the North American sports experience! This year the EIHA England U14 team will visit Prague during the

Easter holidays.The selection process took place at trial camps last August, October and December, and Rhodes was delighted to be included in the final squad.We wish him well for the team’s training camp where final preparations will be made before the trip to Prague. Well done to Rhodes and other pupils who are combining their school programme with extensive training for sports outside Bablake.We look forward to reports on the England team’s progress at Easter in Prague.

Boys’ Hockey Over 120 competitive fixtures have been played this season by our boys’ hockey teams. Once again, we have benefitted from our excellent professional hockey coach, Phil Gooderham, who has now been working with us for over 10 years. Phil is also Head Coach for Birmingham University Girls’ Hockey Club who play in the National League.We are extremely fortunate to have a former international coach working at the school and his work with our pupils, across all ability levels, is very valuable. Our U14s have undoubtedly been our ‘team of the year’ and are currently top of the Warwickshire League. Captained by Oliver Pemble and managed by Mr Benfield, they have played 14, won 11 and lost 3.The 1st XI have been through a transitional period after losing eight players from last season a squad of players who reached the last eight in the National Plate. However, results and performances have improved throughout the season and the 1st XI will certainly be a force to be reckoned with next season. At the lower end of school the U13s continue to improve and have shown huge potential.The U12s have trained hard on a Friday evening and their efforts paid off with an excellent 2-1 win over local rivals KHVIII.

Badminton Bablake entered both a girls’ and boys’ team into the U16 Coventry Schools badminton competition and after an afternoon of competing they were both crowned winners. Both teams then progressed to the Warwickshire round, finishing fourth. Photo taken by André Tremblay for the 57th Year PeeWee Quèbec Tournoi International de hockey 2016.

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The senior mixed badminton team, captained by Jakevir Shoker, has won both of its fixtures v Solihull this year and has been fantastic in terms of enthusiasm and application.

Rugby

The Mick Hibbert Memorial Trophy Earlier in the term, the 1st XV finished its season with an excellent performance but narrow 13-0 loss to KHVIII. It was a fine, physically demanding first half performance from both sides that had the crowd guessing for a long time as to who might win the 2017 Mick Hibbert Memorial Trophy, with just an impressive drop goal separating the teams at the break.

feel pride in their performance.They now hand the baton to the current Lower Sixth and Fifth Year players who must work hard to win back the Mick Hibbert Shield next year!

The intensity of the tackling and commitment from both sides did not drop at all in the second half, but a couple of early penalties gave KHVIII the momentum to score a converted try from an impressive surge from their forwards before adding a penalty that established a 13-0 lead.The immense determination and endeavour of our full squad just fell short of finding a means of unlocking the KHVIII defence and so the memorial trophy stays with our neighbours for another year, while all our players should

The U15s have been the team of the term with five wins out of seven so far and progress to the Coventry Cup Final assured with a 38-12 victory over President Kennedy in the semifinal. Jonathan Yardley, Harry Williams, Connor Jones and James McElligott gave great accounts of themselves in a tough Coventry Schools v Cornwall DPP on tour in Exeter whilst Ben Harrison and Will Canning continue to represent Wasps U15 and played in victory over Saracens. Nick Buckley also represented

Both sides should be congratulated on offering the spectators an excellent evening’s entertainment and we thank referee Paul Smith and his team of officials for fostering a physically exhausting but fair contest. First XV players Dan Smith and Chris Bale have both represented Warwickshire U17s.

Warwickshire to add to a clearly talented group of players. Sam Herniman has also been part of the U14 Wasps DPP. The U16s burst back into life with a fantastic victory over WMG in their Coventry Cup quarter and both Liam Duggan and Rory Meechan have represented Warwickshire U16s.The U14s have impressed with their perseverance this season; a quarter final victory versus Grace Academy put them in the Coventry Schools semi-final and we hope that their hard work might be rewarded with a place in the final. The U12s continue with an excellent first season and show huge promise.They have lost just six of their 15 matches this year. The B team has also been excellent, the highlight being an incredible 80-5 victory over King Henry VIII.They have, in fact, won eight out of ten matches this year and also drew one other. In the U13 squad, Asad Ssemwogerere, Michael Adeyemi, Patrick Heffernan and Max Newman have all been training with the Wasps DPP squad.Wins v KES Birmingham and KES Stratford have been highlights this term.

Bablake School

Bablake Sport

Cricket All our teams have been training hard over the winter months in preparation for the 2017 season.We are once again delighted to have Nick James as our professional cricket coach; Nick currently works as a coach at Complete Cricket whilst also playing for Berkswell CC in the Birmingham Premier Cricket League. Nick signed his first professional contract at 18 with Warwickshire, before leaving at the age of 22 to play for Glamorgan. It was at Glamorgan where he reached the 40 Over Final at Lords, narrowly losing to a strong Nottinghamshire side. Nick has also represented England U19s. Mr Phillips and Mr Kilroy (our Head Groundsman and Level 2 Cricket Coach) lead our Academy programme which has been running since October and this has enabled our elite cricketers to work on their games, both technically and mentally, over a sustained period of time.

Bablake Sport

Netball

Girls’

Hockey

Girls selected for Warwickshire JAC

The girls have been very busy on the hockey field this term, with some excellent results. Well done to the 1st and 2nd XI with their double 3-0 victory over KHVIII.The girls’ dedication to training is clearly visible with the 1st XI narrowing their loss to Princethorpe 2-1 last term with a previous defeat of 6-0.This term we stand a good chance of equalising or even getting a win! There has been much recent tournament success.The U13s finished runners up in their county 7 aside tournament, narrowly losing to King’s High in a very physical final and they qualified for the regional finals. Special congratulations should go to Maria Savage, Emelia Scimeca, Hattie Evans, Hannah Denton and Millie McCamley on their selection to represent Warwickshire JAC.They are waiting to hear about selection for the elite academy.

Our strong partnership with Warwickshire CCC continues to grow in 2017 and we are delighted to be hosting 17 junior fixtures for them this summer.

The U15s followed the U13s’ success despite a snow covered pitch at their tournament.They won their first match comfortably against Kingsley, knowing their second game against Princethorpe would be tough. Bablake had the majority of possession, however against the run of play Princethorpe were not lacking in aggression in front of goal. Bablake had to play well to score an equaliser and were on the hunt for their second.With a short break they then faced KHVIII and the score was 1-0 to Bablake.The final match was a close one and the score remained 0-0 v King’s High.

All Bablake School cricket fixtures can be found online at www.bablakesport.com

We are delighted to report that the U14 and U15 girls beat KHVIII 8-0 and 4-0 respectively to win the Coventry Hockey Cup.

The Lion | Spring 2017

Since our last report, the U15s and U13s have played their Coventry Schools Tournaments.The U15s played some competitive netball and finished runners up.The U13B team finished a superb season with seven wins of nine played and a victory at the Coventry Schools Tournament, a title they have now held for two years.The U13A team finished runners up after a well fought final against KHVIII.This team has really developed this season, which all bodes well for next year when they become U14s. The U15s travelled to compete in the annual Uppingham Tournament at the start of the term.The girls had a great day and competed well against some top class boarding schools.They beat Perse 7-6, drew with Greshams 9-9 and beat Kimbolton 8-3.There was a two game break before playing Uppingham who had not lost a game.The girls rose to the challenge and beat the host school 7-5.The game against Oakham was tight

and tense and we lost 8-9 in a game that we should have drawn or even won. Fitness and disappointment of the previous game left the girls not fully focussed for the game against Bromsgrove and the score was 2-11 loss. In a close section, Bablake finished fourth on goal difference.The level of competition should not be underestimated and the girls were a credit to the school. The other age groups have continued to train well and have been rewarded with some good results. It is pleasing to see that numbers attending U12 training have increased.The girls are working well and adapting to changes within the teams with maturity.The U12s are hoping to finish the season with success in the Coventry Schools Tournament. Congratulations to the Upper Sixth netballers on retaining their title at the Dominique Matthews tournament.

Bablake School

Bablake Update

Headmaster’s Notes

Diary Dates

Recent visitors to the school will have noticed some of the many changes underway to improve the facilities which underpin our pupils’ education.

for Sixth Formers. I have appointed a Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator internally to work further with pupils and staff on these primary aspects of education.

A Fifth Year Common Room was provided last September and Bablake Junior School has benefited from new rooms to enhance provision for ICT and Art. Our Sixth Formers are currently ‘camping out’ in the Main Hall and the Library whilst the Sixth Form Centre is completely refurbished and extended to provide a modern learning and common room environment to nurture greater independence as pupils prepare for life beyond school. As part of this exciting project, we are also improving pupils’ careers, learning support, medical and catering facilities – so as to ensure the best possible care and guidance.We shall move in September to lessons of 50-minute duration to enable extended learning and thinking, and the curriculum will be enhanced by revised and new option choices as well as a new Bablake Advantage programme

Change for change’s sake is never a good thing, whereas all these enhancements will offer fresh and improved opportunities for our pupils. We know that routine can stifle creativity and a good school is always self-reflective and looking at ways to develop its pupils’ experience. At the same time, the core values of mutual support and respect, a moral compass, courtesy and generosity within a caring and diverse community will continue to ensure that our pupils emerge from Bablake as well-rounded and naturally self-confident young adults. Our staff are of course key to this, as they guide, challenge and inspire, committed to the happy progress of their charges. Our former pupils sense it when they visit: so much has changed for the better, but the central tenet of our ambitions endures, namely to prepare our pupils for a lifetime of selfless fulfilment and success.

Staff News I am pleased to announce the following new appointments for September: Mr Nicholas Fontana,Teacher of Classics. Mr Fontana studied Classics at the Universities of Bologna and Warwick and is currently completing his teacher training in Sussex. Mrs Hayley Bamforth,Teacher of Food and Nutrition. Mrs Bamforth studied Hotel Management with Tourism at Manchester Metropolitan University and subsequently trained as a Food and Textiles teacher.

She is teaching at Southam College. Mr Michael Spencer,Teacher of Physics. Mr Spencer studied Physics and Business Studies at the University of Warwick and is currently Head of Science and Assistant Headteacher at Coventry Blue Coat School.

Tuesday 25 April Summer Term begins Monday 1 May Bank Holiday – School closed Friday 26 May Expeditions Day Monday 29 May – Friday 3 June Half Term Wednesday 14 June New Shell Parents’ Evening EDM 7.00pm Thursday 15 June New Shells’ Afternoon 2.00pm Lower School Young Musicians’ Summer Concert, EDM 7.00pm Thursday 22 June Art & Design Technology Exhibition Main Hall, 5.00 – 7.00pm Friday 23 June Open Evening 5.00 – 8.00pm Monday 3 July Sports Day, The Pingles, Nuneaton 9.00am – 2.15pm Thursday 6 July Term ends 12 noon Friday 7 July Leavers’ Ball, Nailcote Hall 7.30pm

Mr Simon Roberts,Teacher of Design and Technology. Mr Roberts has studied Product Design at the University of Loughborough, spending a placement year at Wellingborough School.

Bablake School

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