The Annual Magazine of King €duuard's School Birmingham CHRONIO.6 KES CHRONICLE 1998 CHRONICLE CONTENTS H6LLOS 5 GOOD6V6S 10 FCATURCS 15 Reviews 29 WORDS 37 MUSIC 45 PICTURCS 49 TRIPS 57 SOCICTieS 75 HOUS6S 83 SPORT 91 EDITORIAL STAFF Heuos & GOODBVeS The Team FeRTURes Daniel Andrews DRRMR Alex Houuell MUSIC Benedict Fisher TRIPS Paul Rutter Houses Michael McDermott socieTies Vivek Katyal SPORT James Hebblethuuaite CDITOR Philip Wheatley STRff Sophie Sheringham RRTWORK Richard Hamilton Page 3 KES CHRONICLE 1998 CHRONICLE EDITORIAL Hugh Wright, our departing Chief Master, has long said that we do "an unusual number of things unusually well", and that much is certainly true. Looking through what has already come in for this year's Chronicle, and what went in last year's Chronicle, there are trips run by staff to far-flung places (Mount Blanc, Iceland, Texas, Abergavenny and Stokes Bam to name but a few); There are articles about pupils' work in Stage Crew, PSG, Cot Fund, and at Andrew's Coppice; There are reviews of five or six school plays and the same number of concerts and lunchtime recitals, there are sports tours in exotic locations and numerous societies. Behind each of these activities there is a member of staff, and a number of pupils, each contributing in their own way, each giving up their free time - be it to organise the trips, to organise a society meeting, or to visit elderly people, or to organise Cot Fund events. It is these people, whom the school has brought up in "godliness and good learning", who have earned for the school a reputation that is second to none. It is these who have "Feared no hardship, shirked no labour, smiled at death and conquered fate", it is these people who have made our school "great" and it is of these people, we should be proud. The price for our reputation must be eternal vigilance. We must never get complacent or apathetic; for if we do we shall surely learn that a tarnished crown is no crown at all. As is customary, I would like to give my well-earned thanks to Diane, Fred and Sandra, without whom Chronicle would never get off the drawing board let alone through the 57 (and then some) revisions it goes through before it gets to the finished work you see before you. I would also like to thank all the section editors for their hard work. Anyone can hand in a Chronicle section, but it takes a special kind of person to do it well, and this year I am glad to say, they have all done just that. Most of all however, I would like to thank the two people who have been ever-present throughout the 14 month gestation period it takes for Chronicle to go from conception to birth. Without Miss Sheringham and Miss Tudor, Chronicle would have been but a pale reflection of what it is today. Philip Wheatley Editor 'Unaccustomed as I am...' Having been impressed by its glossy pages and professional appearance, I enthusiastically accepted responsibility for Chronicle when Julian Burns decided that Chronicle 1997 was to be his last. I am happy to say that in spite of the size and difficulty of the task and the anxiety with which much of the year has been fraught, that initial enthusiasm has not waned (much). I look forward with excitement to seeing the final product of so much hard work. I must thank first of all, the team who has put the magazine together. The section editors have had full responsibility for the layout of their sections and have coped with the challenge admirably. I name especially Philip Wheatley and James Hebblethwaite, Philip for his dedication to Chronicle, even after his departure for university, and James for his patience and tireless exertions as editor. My thanks also go to Bradley Spencer, Richard Hamilton and Tomek Naden for their excellent work on the covers and sections headings; Catherine Tudor and Julian Burns for their unstinting advice and support; and to the Resources Centre Staff for their help and their tolerance. SES Page 4 KES CHRONICLE 1998 David Ash door that the appearance of the school C: Why did you go into teaching? and equipment within it are a high th Head of Modern Languages DJA: As a 6 former, I used to earn investment priority. If you are looking money during the holidays teaching for differences, I would have to say that English to French children in Kent and life at KES seems more pressurised. loved it. I spent two years in France as Both pupils and staff are busier, which an English assistant, and after can make it difficult to find time to build graduating, a year's teacher training up relationships. increased my enthusiasm, so I jumped C: The pupils see you as a bit of a in with both feet. radical. What is your answer to this? C: ... Russian ? DJA: It rather depends what you mean. DJA: It's the world's 5th most widely If you mean someone who tends to look spoken language after English, Chinese, at the way things are done and ask Hindi and Spanish (French is 6lh and "How can we do this better, for the German is 12Ih by the way). It is not as greater benefit of a larger number of difficult to learn as they would have you people?", then I'm comfortable with the believe, especially up to GCSE. label. I have always felt that we have C." What are the advantages of doing a more to fear from apathy and modern language at A-Level? complacency that we have from DJA: Britain has a terrible reputation C: What did you do before KES? responsible change. I suppose that's for laziness where foreign languages are DJA: For the last five years I ran the why I try to encourage people to look concerned. It's not true that "everyone Russian Department at Bolton school beyond the familiar, to get out of their out there" speaks English, and those in Lancashire. There aren't many comfort zones, to think more who remain stubbornly monolingual are schools where Russian is a major adventurously. If that means limiting their opportunities. I would not subject, and I suppose a Lancashire mill questioning the status quo from time to stop at European languages either, even town is not the first place you would time, as long as it's done sensibly then though they are the ones we tend to go looking for one, but we had over 100 it can be quite helpful. teach in British schools. The skills of boys studying the language at any one C: What do you like doing out of language acquisition, once learned, can time. I taught French as well, of course, school? be applied to anything from Swahili to but the Russian sort of took over. DJA: My main focus outside school is Chinese. And once you've started, why C: How have you found KES different the church. Wherever my wife and I confine yourself to "economically from your previous school? have lived, being part of a Christian strategic" languages? Buck the trend! DJA: The similarities strike you first. community has always been very Study something unusual for its own Like KES, Bolton school is an important. I'm also a musician and the sake rather than with one eye in the academically successful, independent two spheres overlap quite a bit. My bank account! - There, is that radical boys' school with a girls' "division" on favourite kind of holiday involves hills enough for you? the same site. Sport is strong, the or mountains. And as you would expect buildings are magnificent: it is obvious of a linguist foreign travel has become C: Thank you very much Mr Ash. from the moment you walk through the a bit of a habit. HELLOS PageS KES CHRONICLE 1998 Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in lesson coincides with the beginning -of Michael Daniel England). another, in spite of the fact that the two Head of Physics lessons are timetabled in two different C: What made you leave CERN to places, which is in direct contradiction pursue a teaching career? of a fundamental law of nature - "You MD: I went to CERN as a research cannot be in two different places at the fellow. Such positions are not same time". Teaching here is a lot of permanent; they usually last two years. hard work and there is always After that you must find another job something to be done in running the somewhere else. After leaving CERN I Physics department. There is always went to work in the Rutherford paper in my pigeon hole, no matter how Appleton Laboratory. My teaching many times I empty it during the day! career started when Canon Phillips, who was then Chaplain of St. John's C: Do you agree with Physicists who (my College in Oxford) was appointed have said that "Biology is for scientists Headmaster of The King's School in who can't handle real mathematics"? Canterbury and was looking for a MD: Certainly not. Biologists study physics teacher. Chris Lewellyn-Smith, extremely complicated systems. Even who was then a Fellow at St. John's, a living cell is very complicated. C: What did you do before KES? suggested that I get in touch with Canon Because of its complexity it is not MD: I was head of Science at St. Paul's Phillips. This I did and I got the job. always possible to study such a system Girls' School in London for six years.