Celebrating Success - Bishop Thomas Grant School

Stars Poetry WeekMr Parchot writes:Thursday 4 October was designated National Poetry Day 2012,but here at BTG we did one better, holding a Poetry Week.Many staff as well as students got involved with a range of events,celebrating poetry and creative writing. Teachers were invited to submittheir favourite poems with an explanation about why they had chosenthem. Over fifty poems were submitted, reproduced as posters to festoonevery corridor in the school. Ms Bevans chose ‘The Road Not Taken’ byRobert Frost:Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorrow I could not travel bothAnd be one traveller, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowthFor Ms Bevans the message of the poem was: “I don’t have to follow thesame path as everyone else and it is good to take risks.” About six teachersselected ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling which begins with the famous lines “Ifyou can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs..” and endswith ‘Yours is the Earth and everything that’s on it, / And – which is more –you’ll be a man my son!’.Mr Myton loves this poem because it tells us that “to be a success you haveto put yourself in a position where you can fail and that makes successeven sweeter”. Mrs Connolly finds the poem “beautiful and elegant” aswell as “inspirational and motivational, providing a set of rules for grownupliving”. I chose ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ by Oscar Wilde:Yet each man kills the thing he lovesBy each let this be heard,Some do it with a bitter look,Some with a flattering word,The coward does it with a kiss,The brave man with a sword!Equal First Prize was awarded to Francis Read in Year 9 for‘Stars’ and to Ethan Laurent in Year 10 for ‘Cold Fascination’.Here is a verse from each poem:Stars by Francis ReadHe had a dream. Keen, brightEyes staring deep into the nightSky at the white blinks thatFlickered andBurst, sending shining sliversWaving across the dark blanketOf the raw night that whistled aBare tune.Cold Fascination by Ethan LaurentThe pure white scene is all I seeAnd the flurrying wind will findSnowflakes falling from high above begin to bury my feet;My cold fascination entices me and amazes my workingmind.Equal second places went to Romy Patrick in Year 8 for ‘Night’s Silver’and the poignant ‘A Star So Special’ by Gabriella Emery in Year 7:Night’s Silver by Romy PatrickBeacons of colour lighting the darknessGleaming silver studs in night’s raven black hairPearls suspended in shadow,Guiding the weary traveller.A Star So Special by Gabriella EmeryWe were told we were special,We were the selected few.We wore the Star of David,To show we were the Jews.First and second prize winners received WH Smith Vouchers of £20 and£15 respectively and seven other students received £10 Vouchers for theirpoems. Sarah Ritchie from Year 7 wrote ‘My Little Baby Ignatius’ whichmoved all of us:At the going down of the sunand in the morning,We will remember them.Mr Parchot writes:On Sunday the 11 November the Nation commemorated theend of the First World War in services of Remembranceacross the land. It is also a day when we remember thesacrifice of both combatants and civilians in wars thathave happened since then and wars, such as the conflict inAfghanistan and in Syria, which, sadly, are still ongoing.The Remembrance service at Bishop Thomas Grant School began withstudents entering the hall in sombre mood to the poignant strainsof Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’. This was followed a dance piece tomodernist music, ‘Different Trains’, presented by Year 7 students andchoreographed by Ms Keville. It depicted bodies colliding with oneanother and being pulled apart, symbolizing the fragmentation of humanlives that is wrought by war; it was aptly called ‘Chaos’.George Kyriacos delivered a dramatic and moving rendition of RupertBrooke’s ‘The Soldier’:If I should die think only this of me:That there’s some corner of a foreign fieldThat is forever England.It has become fashionable to dismiss this poem as patriotic nonsense butthere is an alternative reading, which some modern readers miss. Giventhe horrific scale of the loss of human life the poem can be seen as adialogue between the living and the dead, providing some consolation tothe bereaved, helping them come to terms with their loss, believing thattheir loved ones had not died in vain. Is that such a bad thing?We were then brought closer to the present day when Sam Woodham,Kianna Cummings and Martha Ewas presented a powerful reading ofa poem called ‘Vrbana Bridge’, which dramatises the story of a youngcouple who died in the siege of Sarajevo during the Balkans conflict inthe 1990s. Bosko was a Serb and a Christian, and Admira a Moslem.Both only twenty-five, and had been sweethearts since secondaryschool. They were betrayed and shot by a sniper as they tried to escapeover Vrbana Bridge and their bodies lay in an embrace for six daysbefore being removed by their families. A true modern day Romeo andJuliet, their “only love sprung from their only hate”.Towards the close of the assembly the school choir sang a hauntingmelody based on Wilfred Owen’s poem‘Greater Love’ which celebrates the manyacts of heroism and sacrifice that emergefrom extreme and horrific situationssuch as War. Let us contemplateOwen’s poetic words drawnfrom scripture, which readlike a prayer:Christ is literally in NoMan’s Land. There menoften hear his voice:“Greater Love hath noman than this, that aman lay down his lifefor a friend”.AmenThis poem is a favourite of mine because it reveals the feelings of a manwho had everything, wealth, fame, glamour, yet lost it all and so speaks tous about the tragedy of the human condition.Throughout Poetry Week poems were recited by teachers over thetannoy and each morning at staff briefing a colleague read out a favouritepoem. However the most important event in the week was the PoetryCompetition, open to all students in the school.The main theme was ‘Stars’, and we allowed this to be loosely interpreted.There were over one hundred and fifty entrants. Two evenings were givenover to poetry readings in the library. It was a very difficult and protractedprocess adjudicating the prize winners of the competition, but we finallycame to the following decision:My little twinkling starWhy did he have to die?Why did he have to die that night?I never said goodbye.On a lighter note we all enjoyed hugely Kacper Mielniczuk’s (Year 7)submission ‘Ball of Gas’ in which he addresses a star as if it is a friend.Hello Ball of Gas!We meet again,In the normal place,The starry, starry night.Thanks everybody, students and colleagues, who participated in PoetryWeek and made it such a successful event. Next year we plan to hold apoetry evening to which parents will be invited to listen to studentsreading their poems and to join us in celebrating the deep well ofcreativity here.Jane Eyre onScreenThe Editor of Nuntius, Mr Richard Wilcocks, is a pastchairman of the Brontë Society, which is based at Haworthin Yorkshire, at the nineteenth century parsonage where theBrontës once lived. He is particularly interested in film andtelevision versions of Charlotte Bronté’s great novel, and inNovember gave a talk on the subject illustrated by slides tosixth form students.Mia Wasikowska played Jane in the latest film version of Charlotte Brontë’s famous novel4 5

Ambassadorsto GermanyYear 11 students Anthony Menezes consciousness of Germany and especially theand Luke Levy-Shepherd (pictured) lives of young Germans.are planning to become ambassadorsLUKE: We are going to Berlin next year for threeto Germany.days to meet with our counterparts.They explained:LUKE: We’re trying to play a part in improving thelinks between British and German young people.ANTHONY: We’re also going to visit primaryschools in London to help raise theirANTHONY: And once we’re there we willtry to keep up with the latest news andcurrent opinion.LUKE: Most of the conversations will be inGerman, but some is sure to be in English.ANTHONY: Our teacher, Mr Lindsay-Noble,told us what was involved and handed usapplication forms.LUKE: It sounded exciting, so we filled them in.ANTHONY: We are both studying German forGCSE. It is challenging and rewarding.LUKE: This will be my first time in Germany.ANTHONY: I have been there with my familyon holiday.Tense and grippingOn the right are extracts from a letter sentto Mrs Turvey from Lydia Lewison, RegionalManager, Shakespeare Schools Festival,about the production at the BroadwayTheatre in Lewisham.Callum Edwards-Manning had just joined Year 8 whenhe played the part of all three apparitions in ‘Macbeth’.He told our reporter: “I go to a Saturday drama schoolin Dulwich, but this was the first time I had been in aShakespeare play. It was nerve-wracking and exciting.I tried to be as mysterious and as scary as possible. Ihope to be in a lot more drama in school.”Rehearsal photoby a parent, Mrs CathyO’Sullivan. Callum isin the centre, betweenKarol Kubik and ChadSt Louis. Behind themare Sophie Wojna,Sophie Jade Madine,Lydia Greentree (LadyMacbeth)and JosephAlford (Macbeth).Congratulations on another wonderful performance fromBishop Thomas Grant…It was a tense and gripping ‘Macbeth’, with a great sense of atmosphere. Ithought you conjured the world of the play brilliantly - the costumes were funand stylish and transported us to another time and place. There were somereally clever bits of direction - I loved the powerful opening and they way youstaged the ghost scene and apparitions. The final stage stage picture was reallystrong, and from start to finish the pace and intensity didn’t let up.It was a great ensemble piece; the whole company worked together beautifullyand had clearly worked on the relationships and dynamics between characters.As individuals, they are very strong performers… I could see that they hadthought about their characters and found their own take on them, which meantthat we saw their own interpretation, which was really exciting.I know how much hard work must have gone to creating such a polishedproduction, and I hope everyone involved feels really proud of what wasachieved. Please pass on a huge ‘congratulations’ from me to your cast. I wasvery impressed.LydiaOld Vic New VoicesBarbershop music features songs with understandablelyrics and easily singable melodies, whose tones clearlydefine a tonal center and imply major and minor chords andbarbershop (dominant and secondary dominant) seventhchords that resolve primarily around the circle of fifths,while making frequent use of other resolutions.(From the Contest and Judging Handbook of the Barbershop Harmony Society.)Visit toNormandyPlanning for a school visit to Normandyin France has already started in theModern Languages Department. It willtake place next summer and is for Year 9students of French and History.BarbershopBoysBarbershop vocal harmony is a style of acapella, orunaccompanied, singing which was invented more than a centuryago by African-American men waiting their turn in barbershops.Practitioners at this school include tenors Nathan Marquez dos Santosand Stefano Trombetta in Year 11, baritone Daniel Cecile from Year 12 andbasses Bartek Mielniczuk and Edward Obeng-Botah, also from Year 12.Nathan spoke about the group: “ We have various programmes for differentoccasions.Recently, we performed a Drifters medley which included ‘Under theBoardwalk’ and ‘Under the Roof’ which are favourites from the Sixties. We arealso fond of ‘This Boy’, a Beatles number, and ‘Sh-Boom’ by the Crew-Cuts.We have performed at school concerts, at the PiXL award ceremony andelsewhere. We are planning a visit to a hospital at the moment.I also play the cello. Music will always be very important for me, but itwon’t be my career, I think.”Full details can be obtained fromMr Lindsay-Noble.A cross-section of studentsfrom Years 9 to 13 are nowpart of the Old Vic NewVoices Company.“We are one offorty schools fromacross the wholecountry whohave beenselected totake partin thisscheme,which isis basedon theOld Victheatre,”saidMrsTurvey.“The criteriais that all thepeople in ithave to havean absolutepassion fordrama, whichthey certainlyall do. I haveincluded allthose studentswho I think will benefit, hugely,from being in the company becauseit will help them develop and gainin confidence.We see four shows, beginning withIbsen’s ‘Hedda Gabler’. Each one ispreceded by a two-hour workshopwith directors from the Old Vic –and it is all free.”Three of the Company (pictured)– Isabella Perales, Lydia Greentreeand Bartek Mielniczuk – gave theirviews on their first visit:ISABELLA: The workshop in thehall was really entertaining, withtwo professionals directing us.I loved the exercises where wecould all show our skills.The Old Vic is spectacular! We saw‘Hedda Gabler’ and it was so good! Ihad seen Sheridan Smith, who playsthe main part, on television in ‘Gavinand Stacey’, and she was impressivehere too, in a different way.LYDIA: I enjoyed the professionalatmosphere of the workshop aswell. It was like a working theatreenvironment.‘Hedda Gabler’ was amazingbecause of the portrayal of theleading character as headstrongand a little mad. The set made youfeel you were there in her home.BARTEK: The lighting wasintelligently used, and I admiredthe special effects, for example theshot which brings the play to itsconclusion. The workshop helpedme to understand the play.I am looking forward to the nextone, ‘Kiss Me Kate’.The Old Vic New Voices TheatreCompany consists of:Chilonda Agyeman,Joseph Alford, Stephanie Camp,Anne Marie Deborah,Natasha Doran, Orla Dunlop,Hendrix Famutimi, Tymiah Ford,Eric Foster, Maria Grech,Lydia Greentree, Cyrus WarmanHapas, Ellen Hickey, Karol Kubik,Jennifer Lopez, Sophie- Jade Madine,Bartek Mielniczuk,Michaela Obijiaku, Isabella Perales,Oliver Perales, Alex Redman,Koralia Salacuri, AthanasiaShiamtanis, Chad St. Louis,Grace Twomey, Sophia Wojna,Elsa Yohannes.8 9

We are essentially labourers“I am a graduate of the Universityof Leeds,” said Mrs Dawson. “Iworked before at Dulwich Collegeteaching French and Italian.I am so impressed by the studentshere, because they are both friendlyand hardworking. There is anexcellent sense of community atBishop Thomas Grant.My interests - apart from languagesof course – are in art and sport. Ihave a masters degree in Historyof Art, and visit museums like TateBritain frequently. I love the Victoriaand Albert Museum, which has anamazing jewellery collection.I train for the triathlon, and I wasat both the Olympics and theVolunteers with primary school children in KariraParalympics in the summer.I am hoping to start a newbeginner’s course in Italian in anafter-school club.”“I was at Harris Academy inBeckenham until last summer,” saidMr Nasrin. “Before that, I studiedBiology and Business at Queen MaryCollege in East London.Teaching is easier here becausethe students are so respectful andenthusiastic.Mr Beston from the Music Departmentspoke to our reporter about The KariraTrust:“I founded The Karira Trust a couple of years agoin 2010.The idea is to send a group of volunteers to the villageof Karira, in Central Kenya, every August. We assistwith the renovation of Karira Primary School.We, the volunteers, are essentially labourers workingwith local craftsmen. We are now adding capacityto the school.It’s a different system to here in England becauseprimary school can last well into the teens of thepupils. If people want to know more or to donatemoney, they should go to the website atwww.kariratrust.org.ukI do most of the day-to-day work, which is similar towhat I used to do when I was a school student myself.At the moment is all connected with next year’s trip.”Nuntius spoke to two of the new teachers who joined the staff inSeptember. Mrs Dawson is in the Modern Languages Departmentand Mr Nasrin is in the Science Department.My sporting interests are in mixedmartial arts and football. I used toplay professionally for Millwall as agoalkeeper, and then for Charlton, inacademy teams.I could have gone in a sportingdirection, but I couldn’t becauseI contracted Osgood-SchlatterSyndrome, which is a painfulcondition affecting the legs.A true inspiration!The year 8 rugby team were lucky enough to meet anOlympic hero, when Steve Brown, the captain of UKWheelchair Basketball came into school.Steve’s story is one of true determination and courage, typifying exactlywhat the London 2012 games were all about. Whilst working in GermanySteve lost his balance on a balcony and fell just twelve feet to the ground -which left him paralysed from the chest down.His journey since then is truly remarkable and proved to be a hugeinspiration for our students who were in awe by Steve’s incredible storyof despair and success. As the boys look to embark on a leadership andmentoring programme that will turn them into ‘young men’ they can nowdo so knowing that anything is possible if you work hard enough for it!I play the piano – I am Grade Five –and I watch ‘Brainiac’ on televison,my favourite programme.My hope for the future is to builda school in a developing countryin Africa.”Steve Brown Captain, David Anthony andAaron Phipps playing Wheelchair Rugby inthe grounds of Cardiff Castle in preparationfor the 2011 GB CupSPORTS REPORTBadmintonKey Stage 3 Badminton is back witha bang! Participation at Mondaylunchtime club has been fantastic,resulting in two teams being enteredfor the Lambeth Championships.Both teams won their opening twomatches in style.Team A dropped no games out of 10and Team B only dropped the onegame, demonstrating the hard workand dedication that has been put intotraining. Currently the A team havewon four out of four and the B teamhave only one loss to their name.A special mention must be reservedfor Patrick O’Sullivan who is theonly unbeaten player in the wholetournament.Mr ShedwickCross CountryCold, muddy, rainy November days,perfect for a bit of Cross Country?Well BTG seem to think so, becausea dominating performance wasgiven at the Lambeth Cross CountryChampionships. The Year 7/8 boysand girls cleaned up, winning bothteam categories.There were some fantasticperformances with all BTG studentsfinishing no lower than ninth intheir selected category in theyear 7/8 team event. Again BTGwere dominant in the Year 11 boyscategory winning the team eventwith four of the team finishing in thetop seven.There were plenty of individualtriumphs on the day with a numberof medal winners being selected torepresent Lambeth at the LondonGames: Chiara Alfonso, AndreBingham, Victoria Bukaczewska,Amanda Burrows, Paul Chalobah,Carl Joe Efambe, Christina Lemince,Abel Moura, Joseph Nyame, YaredTesfaye and Kevin Velaj.Mr ShedwickRugbyThe Year 8 players have had avery good start to the season sofar. Though they have only playeda couple of games they remainundefeated, comfortably beatingboth Shirley High and Kingsdale.The first game of the season againstShirley High turned out to be awhitewash as we were 49-0 victors.When BTG played Kingsdale beforewe got beaten, so this match wasbitter sweet when we came out ontop 33-10.A big mention should go to thedefensive effort of the team whodominated the contact areas. Thesquad have been working very hardand the improvement they haveshown already this year has beenexcellent. Played: 2, Won: 2, For: 82,Against: 10.A special mention should go toRyan Campbell-Walton, MarioMeza-Zambrano, Terrence Holland,Nicholas Sankey and LaurenceDe Saa-Perrin who have CountyDevelopment trials coming up in thevery near future.Year 7 Rugby has been growingsteadily. The students have beentraining hard for a sport that theyhave never experienced before andhave now reached the start of theseason excited, enthusiastic andraring to go. Though the squad hasbeen growing over the term we stillneed more!Congratulations to Ryan Campbell-Walton and Mario Meza-Zambranowho won tickets to go toTwickenham to watch the seniorYear 9 Boys Football: Joey Abreu, Adeyemi Animashaun, Bill Bilwala, Bryce Botsoi, JoshuaBurke, Luca Marquez dos Santos, Samuel Egole, Steve Guevara Marin, Ronan Joyce, AltonLeeward, Isaac Okeke, Nicholas Pavlou, Cassian Thomas, Axel Tshilenge-GarciaYear 8 Rugby Team: Joshua Ajisafe, Kaydon Amoah Baah-Acheamfour, Emmanuel Anyanjo,Finnian Anyanwu, Benjamin Assiedu, Ryan Campbell Walton, James Capitelli, Mario Coker-Russo, Laurence De Saa-Perrin, Terence Holland, Mario Meza-Zembrano, Tyreese Reid, RioRoberts, Nicholas Sankey Aigbukor, Josiah Opoku-Agyei ThompsonEngland team take on Fiji in theautumn internationals.Mr IrelandBasketballBasketball has really taken off thisyear at BTG. With all year groupsfrom the U14s to U18s entered intothe National Schools Competition,we have made a solid start withthe U18s having already neatenDulwich College on their own court.I can see that we have some verypromising talent developing in thelower school.The U16s have a busy scheduleover the Christmas run in, withmatches against Raines andLambeth academy coming in quicksuccession, we’ll need to be at ourbest to continue our solid start.Mr DierFootballYear 9 has already shown thebenefits of the new games afternoonwith an outstanding hundredpercent record this season and someimpressive and professional displaysthroughout the entire team. We haveseen the side top the Schools Leagueand march into round five of theEnglish Schools and round threeof both the Inner London andSouth London Cups. From goalkeeper to subs the players havebeen brilliant all season.News from the other year groupsis also positive with Year 10 and 8making good progress under newcoaches Mr Green and Mr Shedwick.Year 11 have picked up where theyleft off last year with some gooddisplays and the new Year 7 teamhave shown some great promise.Mr MytonTwostarsCongratulations to KamilDreczkowski who won theExcellence in Sport award atthe school prizegiving. Kamilwas recently ranked third inthe UK at the National U17sKarate Championships. He wasthe youngest entrant in recentcompetitions.Giacomo Spagnoli was honouredwith the title of OutstandingSportsmanship at the ItalianOlympic Awards Ceremony lastmonth. His trophy cabinet mustbe nearly full with his recent haulof medals - two golds (javelinand swimming relay), two silvers(discus and shot put) and abronze for individual swimming.10 11