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'Celebrate!' Issue 35

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Celebrate!<br />

The official newsletter of King Edward VI School<br />

‘100% Authentic: Accept No Imitations’<br />

INSIDE<br />

Into the Foreign Office!<br />

News from our<br />

Six Colleges!<br />

Poetry Please!<br />

Counting Down<br />

to Two-tier!<br />

Our school year ended with its familiar combination of<br />

fundraising and silliness. In readiness for travelling to<br />

South Africa to undertake charity work, former<br />

Deputy Head Boy Sammy Hepper organised a<br />

'Gunge the Teacher' event - which proved as popular<br />

as might be expected.<br />

The gunging machine itself was a work of<br />

craftsmanship, as this moment of imapct on Science<br />

teacher Ian Stewart demonstrates. Inside, read more<br />

about our silly – and serious – activities over the past<br />

term, and news of developments in the year ahead.<br />

ISSUE <strong>35</strong> | 06 JAN 2016


HEAD<br />

LINES<br />

Welcome to a special edition of Celebrate!<br />

in which we look back over the autumn<br />

term and look ahead to an exciting year.<br />

In September this year we will welcome<br />

our new generation of Year 7 and 8<br />

students and, frankly, after all the talk and<br />

all the hype, we cannot wait.<br />

The past term shows just how much we<br />

will be able to do to give exciting new<br />

opportunities for our new recruits - within<br />

the classroom and around the school<br />

generally.<br />

We are pleased that the autumn term<br />

cemented our academic reputation with<br />

two great sets of results at GCSE and A-<br />

level, supported by spectacular successes<br />

in sport, and an unrivalled programme of<br />

activities in the arts, debating, and a range<br />

of Sixth Form events.<br />

None of it happens by accident. I continue<br />

to be inspired our brilliant team of staff,<br />

ably supported by a governing body that<br />

holds firm to the values of our school, and<br />

parents and other supporters who<br />

continue to give us such confidence.<br />

Here's to a happy, healthy, groundbreaking<br />

2016.<br />

Maths Magic<br />

By Emily Radcliff, Head of Mathematics<br />

We are proud that our students get some of the<br />

best Mathematics results in Suffolk. As a result,<br />

visitors are coming to see more of our approach<br />

to teaching and our use of problem-solving<br />

techniques. The aim is to help students to think<br />

more deeply about Maths, rather than just<br />

working through a textbook.<br />

Celebrating a<br />

Golden Autumn<br />

By Beverley Tucker, Deputy Headteacher<br />

The autumn term always begins with the excitement of new<br />

students in Year 9 and our Sixth Form, the nervousness of the<br />

first few days, and then the reassurance as the school gains its<br />

rhythms of lessons, assemblies and extracurricular activities.<br />

Here's a flavour …<br />

Breathtaking 'Joseph'<br />

By Mark Hird, Assistant Headteacher (Arts/Gifted & Talented)<br />

Our annual school musical always energises the school<br />

community, and this year's show – 'Joseph and the<br />

Technicolour Dreamcoat' – was chosen to include performers<br />

from some of our partner middle schools. That made it even<br />

more of a community event. The individual performances,<br />

ensembles, music, stage-management, front-of-house and<br />

technical work were all of a superb standard. Well done and<br />

thanks to everyone – students and staff - who was involved.<br />

Action-Packed<br />

Learning Centre!<br />

By Bridget McMillan, Librarian<br />

Celebrating Celebrating Enrichment Achievement<br />

The Learning Centre is at the heart of our school. We<br />

like the way you can walk straight from Reception into<br />

this vibrant hub for students of all ages. The past term<br />

included a wonderful range of events: visits from<br />

authors organised by our Reading Champion, Phil Daw;<br />

guest speakers for our Open Minds Talks; international<br />

events; a Guitar Hero contest; plus the much-awaited<br />

return of Snowball the hedgehog.<br />

Book Mastermind<br />

Suffolk Book Mastermind is open to students from Years<br />

7, 8 and 9. Thirty Year 9 students took part and<br />

answered 20 questions in two minutes, on a fiction book<br />

of their choice and general knowledge. The winner was<br />

Oliver Cotton 9DN who won by half a point. Ollie will<br />

represent us in the Western Area Final next term.<br />

Poetry Please!<br />

By Mark Crossley, GCSE English Coordinator<br />

The winner of our first Poetry by Heart competition is<br />

Elif Mutlu (pictured on the right). She gave near-perfect<br />

renditions of 'You are old Father William' by Lewis<br />

Carroll, and 'Heart and Mind' by Edith Sitwell. With her<br />

are runners-up Izzy Geatches (left) and Martha<br />

Roberts, and Mr Crossley, who organised the English<br />

Department competition. The judge said “Everyone did<br />

a fantastic job to learn two poems off by heart really<br />

thoroughly. They then overcame their nerves to wow<br />

the judges with their recitations. Elif is a particularly<br />

effective public speaker and we wish her all the best as<br />

she prepares for the next stage”. Elif will now go on to<br />

the county competition, in February, taking on winners<br />

from all over Suffolk. Elif said “It really was good fun<br />

getting to know these poems. I've really enjoyed the<br />

opportunity”.<br />

Remembrance<br />

By Geoff Barton, Headteacher<br />

Each autumn more than 400 students gather in St<br />

Edmundsbury Cathedral to remember the former<br />

students from our school who gave their lives in wars<br />

and conflicts. It is a sombre, poignant occasion, but<br />

also an uplifting one when members of our current<br />

school community meet former students and members<br />

of the Old Burians Association.


Celebrating our Six Colleges<br />

By Peter Wright, Senior Assistant Headteacher<br />

Our Colleges are now very well established in<br />

making sure all our students belong to a smaller,<br />

caring community, with older students able to<br />

support younger ones, and opportunities for a range<br />

of enrichment activities. Here's news from our<br />

Colleges in the autumn term …<br />

Wyken College<br />

By Penny Hunt, Head of College<br />

Welcome to the new Wyken Student Leadership team.<br />

Ickworth College<br />

By Andy McLellan, Head of College<br />

Leaders 2015 – 16<br />

Elveden<br />

Celebrating Enrichment<br />

By Sharon Shelley, Head of College<br />

Last term was Elveden's most successful yet. Ably led by<br />

Kevin Collins and Caitlin Brinkley our College Leaders<br />

have excelled themselves, arranging a number of events<br />

and activities enjoyed by all.<br />

Hengrave<br />

By David Gower, Head of College<br />

The Hengrave College year ended with an uplifting<br />

and entertaining achievement assembly organized<br />

by Tamara Benford-Brown, Ellie Barford, Shannon<br />

Bailey and Maddie Hamilton. Other notable<br />

achievements include Alice Plampin in Year 12<br />

gaining a place on the British Film Institute's<br />

prestigious scriptwriting course in January.<br />

Wyken Intra-college tournament<br />

Doing their Best!<br />

Congratulations to the following Wyken students who made<br />

exceptional effort throughout the autumn term:<br />

Year 9: Kirsten O'Brien, Sophie Skrimshire, Roisin Coveney,<br />

Erin Gibson, Ellie Parker, Rowen De Frias.<br />

Year 10: Lucy Cooper, Esther Jones, Joshua Watkins,<br />

Rachel White.<br />

Year 11: Will Allsopp, Georgia Bowen, Kallie Farthing,<br />

Isabella Geatches, Jaime Poole.<br />

Extra-Curricular Superstars:<br />

It is great to see so many Wyken students getting involved in<br />

our extra-curricular activities, especially sports clubs.<br />

Meanwhile the Wyken Intra-college tournament has seen<br />

the Sixth Form battle it out in a series of superb challenges.<br />

Most notable for their high levels of participation are:<br />

Rachel White, Sophie White, George Anderson, Louis<br />

Clarke, Josh Gauld, Joe Keylock, Jay Proctor, George<br />

Sanders, Theo Stasiak, Owen Smith, Milo Bustin, Scarlett<br />

Guy, Lucy Cooper, Holly Orme, Jasper Skeates, Bailey<br />

Frost-Smith, Nyan Horne, Cameron Palmer, Bill Tooke,<br />

Eleanor Llewellyn, Poppy Thomas, Emily Sleightholme, Tio<br />

Yikona, Scarlett Guy, Kirsten O'Brien.<br />

Kentwell<br />

By Rob Johnson, Head of College<br />

Well done on the appointment of this year's Ickworth<br />

College Leaders:<br />

Joe Dobbyn, Patrick Gembis, India Thompson, Zoe<br />

Pettit, David Longuet, Richard Humphreys, Katrin<br />

Abdelgafar, Holly Dodds, Peter Scotford, Chloe Read-<br />

Marsden and Samantha Davis.<br />

All students have worked incredibly hard in the<br />

classroom producing work to a very high standard,<br />

and they have started to explore ideas and prepare<br />

activities to raise money for the NSPCC.<br />

Exceptional Effort:<br />

The following students have produced work to an<br />

excellent standard, made strong contributions to the<br />

extracurricular life of the school, and been role<br />

models to students across the school and wider<br />

community.<br />

Dorothy Hill, Jessica Durrant, Matilda Potter, Abigail<br />

Gardner, Grace Batterbee, Sam Waterson, Hephzibah<br />

Van Giap, Leah Charlesworth, Will Pettit, Elliot<br />

Marison, Henry Steele, Max Morley, Gabriella Mann,<br />

Holly Clements, Emily Dwane, Rachael Clark, Oscar<br />

Dewhurst, Callum Morton, Josh Boughton, Daniel<br />

Davis, Matt Jackson, Gabriella Bantick, Georgia<br />

Priest, Sam Batterbee, Daniel Palmer and Evangaline<br />

Murray.<br />

The bucket collection for Syria was outstanding with<br />

£472.00 raised by the College Leadership team. More<br />

students than ever have been listed on the weekly<br />

Elveden Roll of Honour, with Patrick Laycock taking pride<br />

of place with an appearance every week.<br />

Young Citizen of the Year<br />

Many congratulations to Elveden<br />

student Connie Gibbs for being<br />

awarded the St Edmundsbury<br />

Young Citizen of the Year Award.<br />

Connie's mother Zena died of<br />

cancer when Connie was just<br />

seven. In the past term she has<br />

raised in excess of £30,000, and<br />

inspired all of us.<br />

Melford College<br />

Rebecca Taylor, Head of College<br />

Special congratulations to Sam Cumbers who<br />

attended a Suffolk 'Inclusive Sport Festival' as a<br />

Young Ambassador. His role was to inspire young<br />

people with a wide range of physical and mental<br />

disabilities, during a day-long sports festival. He<br />

was supported by ex-professional footballer<br />

Christian Roberts (Bristol, Exeter and Cardiff FC).<br />

Sam said: "It was a great opportunity for me to<br />

reinforce to younger students that disabilities are no<br />

barrier to participation".<br />

Kentwell Bronze Merit Achievers:<br />

Several achieved their Bronze Award at the end of last year for<br />

receiving 125 merits so far this year. Merits have been<br />

awarded for 100% attendance, punctuality, homework, attitude<br />

to learning, participating in clubs, effort and questioning.<br />

Well done to: Shannon Bailey, Lucy Lofting, Henry Skillern,<br />

William Moody, Jasmin Raja, Robert Compton, Harry Sykes,<br />

Jasper Chase, Fergus Vickery, Lewis Cosgrove and Martha<br />

Williams.<br />

Other notable Kentwell achievements include:<br />

Jake Jarvis has organised a chess tournament in<br />

school. Winners will get the chance to play more<br />

skilled opponents in the county.<br />

Haaris Khan took up<br />

karate in 2010. He is<br />

now an adult brown belt<br />

and has won many gold<br />

medals - including<br />

representing Team GB<br />

in August 2015 at the<br />

World Martial Arts<br />

Championship where<br />

over 800 athletes from<br />

many different nations<br />

competed.<br />

Welcome to the Melford Student Leadership team. Lots of<br />

our students took an active part in the benchball<br />

competition, organised by the new team. The winner of the<br />

lower school competition was tutor group NX (Miss<br />

Nixon's) - again! Against the odds, SX beat WB in the<br />

Sixth Form competition.<br />

Meanwhile, College Leaders have been raising money for<br />

Bury St Edmunds YMCA. They organised a Christmas<br />

chocolate delivery service, where staff and students could<br />

pay to have chocolate delivered to someone in school. It<br />

was a pleasure to welcome members of the YMCA team<br />

into our Achievement Assembly at the end of term, where<br />

they received our first donation of the year, all raised by<br />

students in Melford College.


Celebrating Enrichment<br />

Celebrating Enrichment<br />

Celebrating Sport<br />

By Geoff Barton, Headteacher<br />

Last term was one of huge successes – in sport, the<br />

arts, debating and in the next phase of our<br />

international work. All of this happens because we<br />

have staff who are so committed to the power of<br />

extra-curricular learning that they willingly give up<br />

lunchtimes, after-school sessions and, often,<br />

weekends. Many thanks to them all.<br />

Into the Foreign<br />

Office<br />

By Sharon Shelley, Teacher of Government &<br />

Politics<br />

International<br />

Developments<br />

By Danny Burton, Head of Community Sport & International<br />

Leadership<br />

Last term we welcomed a group of 17 students from Avenor<br />

College in Bucharest for a week-long visit. It is the<br />

beginning of a new partnership to help our students learn<br />

more about Romania and Eastern Europe. Our students<br />

organised a number of cultural and academic visits, and<br />

took Avenor students to lessons and to our weekly debating<br />

tournament. The visit was a resounding success and we all<br />

look forward to the return visit in March this year.<br />

Drama News:<br />

By Jonathan Lodge, Head of Drama and Performing<br />

Arts<br />

It has been an exceptional year so far for Drama. As<br />

well as 'Joseph', there was a workshop on King Lear<br />

led by the Shakespeare Schools Festival team,<br />

especially for our students. We were also delighted to<br />

welcome our new Sixth Form Drama company, Hawk<br />

and Handsaw, who gave a stunning performance of<br />

Martin Crimp's 'Attempts on Her Life'.<br />

By Gary Clarke, Head of Physical Education<br />

We had an autumn term in PE and sport with many<br />

spectacular successes. We are especially proud to have<br />

gained Gold Award status from the Youth Sport Trust for<br />

the breadth and depth of our sporting provision. Here<br />

celebrating are some of our outstanding students across<br />

a range of sports.<br />

Achievements over the past term included:<br />

Last November two of our most talented Politics<br />

Year 13 students, Grace Edwards and Daniel<br />

Wood, represented our school at the Foreign<br />

Office, participating in a mock EU Council debate.<br />

They took on the role of Finland, and debated so<br />

successfully that the Council accepted the<br />

amendments proposed by our students to a piece<br />

of environmental legislation.<br />

Trips and visits also enhance what students learn in<br />

lessons. Our History team took a superb group of students<br />

to the Normandy battlefields – one of several they run each<br />

year, and our annual Iceland trip by the Geography team<br />

was a considerable success.<br />

Kingettes Go to Westminster<br />

By Alex Fouracre,<br />

Our new female singing group are strong on close<br />

harmonies and soulful sounds. They were honoured to<br />

be invited to sing at the Houses of Parliament for MP<br />

Jo Churchill, at a prestigious reception. They did us<br />

proud with their performance and professionalism.<br />

Our U14 and U15 Volleyball teams finished 2nd and 4th<br />

respectively in the West Suffolk Volleyball competition -<br />

both teams now qualify for the finals<br />

U15 Football: County Upper 0 - King Edward's 2, part of<br />

the English Schools FA Cup, and the team are now<br />

waiting to discover their next opponent<br />

U14 Football: Remain unbeaten this season with a 2-2<br />

draw away to Samuel Ward Academy thanks to a late<br />

equaliser from Louis Clarke. The result means the team<br />

finish top of their league.<br />

Georgia Does It Again<br />

Before Christmas the Arsenal Ladies first team won<br />

the Continental Cup Final and our very own Georgia<br />

Allen was in the squad. The game was played at the<br />

New York Stadium in Rotherham and televised on<br />

BT Sport. Georgia's combination of sporting talent,<br />

academic success and amazing organisational skills<br />

continue to inspire.


Counting Down to<br />

September<br />

The year 2016 promises to be our most exciting<br />

since 1972, when King Edward VI Grammar<br />

School merged with the Silver Jubilee School<br />

and moved to our current site. In September we<br />

will welcome new Year 7 and 8 students and,<br />

after many years of planning, take our place as<br />

one of the proud 11-18 secondary schools that<br />

are at the heart of the English education<br />

system. We will be using the two terms ahead<br />

to get ourselves ready for the new students<br />

who will join us in Years 7, 8 and 9 – building on<br />

the strong foundations of the Bury School<br />

Partnership over the past three years.<br />

Debating News<br />

With successes last term propelling us to the Cambridge Union national finals,<br />

a visit from the General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers<br />

to watch our Friday night debate, and our students featuring in a national<br />

training video, it is proving another great year for debating.<br />

News from the Old Burians'<br />

Association<br />

By John Ottley, Secretary:<br />

November saw a particularly moving shared Act of Remembrance in the<br />

Cathedral as over 400 former and current students gathered to remember<br />

those Old Burians lost in the three major conflicts of the 20th century as well<br />

as Adam Drane (killed six years ago this month in Afghanistan). Three<br />

memorials in the North Aisle list their names – in the place where pupils of<br />

the School have worshipped since 1550.<br />

As we move into another calendar year it is encouraging that the list of<br />

events planned for 2016 is greater than in previous years, and is likely to<br />

increase further as a result of the efforts of the 'Towards 2020' initiative led<br />

by an enthusiastic band of recent leavers. If you play hockey, cricket, golf or<br />

tennis, please make sure you join the database of players we can call upon<br />

as we organise matches in future years with school teams. Just send me an<br />

e-mail (johnottley@oldburians.fsnet.co.uk)<br />

King Edward VI School<br />

Grove Road | Bury St Edmunds<br />

IP33 3BH<br />

01284 761393<br />

admin@king-ed.suffolk.sch.uk<br />

www.king-ed.suffolk.sch.uk<br />

To advertise in Celebrate! contact<br />

our Business Office on 01284 716180

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