July 2017 Watford Grammar School for Boys Headmaster’s Newsletter

In This Issue Update from the Headmaster We are delighted to welcome Mr Adcock and Mr Hedges to our Computing Department.  Headmaster’s update Mr Cartwright, Dr Cerezo-Balsera, Dr Cianci, Mr Eddon and Mr Clarke will be joining Maths  News from around the school and Physics. Ms Field will be joining Geography; Mr Clark, English and Dr Sadler, Chemistry. Mr Nutter and Ms Shah join Economics. Mr Doodson joins PE/Games and Mr  Sport Silver will provide Cover/Games support. We also welcome Ms Wilson, LSA and our new afternoon receptionists, Mrs Elahi and Mrs Dunn, starting in September. Mr Ferguson also  Music joins as DT Technician and Mrs Khow as Science Technician.  Friends of the School At the end of this term, we thank Mrs Lloyd, Dr Buckley, Mr Talbot and Mrs Cooper who are now retiring after having made an invaluable contribution to the school over many years. We also wish a fond farewell to the following members of staff: Mr Belony, Mrs Useful links Beveridge, Mr Carrera, Ms Comb, Mr Coren, Mr Elmas, Mr Glass, Mr De Groot, Mrs WBGS website Hewgill, Mr Kendal, Mr Moore, Ms Sklar, Dr Vekaria, Ms Brown, Mrs Lowe, Mr Ali, Mrs Hy, Ms Jondot, Ms Schaapkens and Mr Lentes. We thank them for their service to the School Term dates and wish them every success in the future. WBGS Sport Thank you to all the parents who have generously donated to the STEM Centre Appeal. We Friends of the School have been delighted with the response which will help provide the high-tech equipment and other fixtures and fittings that the boys will benefit from when the new Centre opens in the Autumn term.We are still accepting donations; all donors of £100 or more can have Contact Us their name (or their son’s name) permanently displayed in the Centre. There are also still sponsorship opportunities available for specific items of equipment, from audio visual [email protected] equipment to laser cutters. For more information visit our website. @WBGSExcellence Here at Watford Boys, the emotional health and well- being of all our students is a major www.watfordboys.org consideration, with excellent support provided through our Heads of Year pastoral system and the Learning Support department. From September 2017, we will also have the

services of Safe Space, Counselling in Schools, through funding from the Watford Fuller Foundation. Safe Space will be at the school on a Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon each week and they will provide a 1:1 confidential counselling

service for our students.

There will be a brief introduction in assemblies next term so that your sons are fully aware of our in-school support systems and can understand how to access Safe Space and how it might help. We see this as a good opportunity for young people to have access to

professional confidential counselling and therapy which we think they will find beneficial.

Please inform Mr Macleod if you do not want your son to have access to this service.

Best Wishes for the summer break,

Mr I Cooksey

News from around the school

This year, the Year 9 form leaders and their teams have worked tirelessly to promote good leadership within the school, organising and presenting assemblies, activities, competitions, surveys and much more. We will be looking to extend these opportunities

next year, so please encourage your son to put himself forward. The End of Year Film Competition was won by Thomas Connor, Matthew Bennett, Tim Hire and James Turvey. They created a very amusing mockumentary on an alternative OFSTED Lectures and report. They were rewarded by watching Spiderman on the Premier Screen at The Odeon Cinema, Leicester Square. Assemblies The Absolute Zero Club has been successful and has encouraged around 80 boys in the General Election Hustings year to have no behavioural points in SIMS for the entire year. They have been rewarded with a trip to Thorpe Park in the last week of school. National Breastfeeding Week The Year 9 sports teams have been very successful, winning the County Cups in Rugby and Affinity Water whole school project Cricket (what happened to Hockey?) and being in the final for the Tennis (result as yet unknown). A large number of the year group took part in the Music Competition and an Kissing it Better array of talent was heard and enjoyed. Many of our boys are actively involved with extra- Meeting the Challenge of Global Food curricular activities and your sons should be encouraged to get involved if they are not at Security – Dr Jon Storkey present. The boys have settled into their GCSE courses now and are ready and prepared for more Civil Engineering - Robert Baldock hard work next year. The 25 hour Maths Challenge 24 Year 12 students sat through 25 hours of

maths lessons taught back to back by 34 teachers from all different departments, each putting a twist on their subject. Highlights included Mr Matthews coming in at 1.15am to teach in his dressing gown; maths with Roman numerals from the classics department; and Braille maths taught by the special educational needs team. The

group, led by Head of Maths Mr Coren, raised

over £6,000 for Great Ormond Street and

Watford Heads of Year Women’s Centre. Next year, Heads of Year will move up Congratulations with their respective year groups, to all the students and staff involved. apart from Mr Horner who will be taking over Year 8, Mrs Messik will Rampaging Chariots take over Year 9 and Mrs Wallis Big Bang Science Fair Watford Boys were successful in the returns from maternity leave to take Congratulations to the Year 12 team Rampaging Chariot competition organised over Year 11. (Luke Ashford, George Wright, Srivatsa by Leonardo on Saturday 24th June. There Garg, Jeremy Zolnai-Lucas, Ethan Honey were four competitions on the day and our and Ralph Curwen) who entered the Big results were: Sumo - semi-finalists; assault Bang competition and won the CREST course – second; tug-of-war - knocked out Gold technology prize, and student prize and football – champions. The team were: which was voted by the other George Wright (champion driver on assault competitors. course), Aidan Graham, Luke Ashford,

Jeremy Zolnai-Lucas and Srivatsa Garg.

MFL Translation Bees PRE Reminders

Year 8 and 9 students, Ethan Crockford, Please remind your sons to use the PRE Saksham Sidana, Hamish Starling, Wasil reading list (available on Moodle and in the Khan and Vishruth Dhamodharan library) to expand their subject knowledge

travelled to Peterborough recently to and love of Philosophy and Ethics over the take part in the Regional Final of the MFL summer. Please don't forget to follow the PRE Translation Bee competition. They all performed really well against stiff department on Twitter @WbgsPRE competition and Wasil and Vishruth Please look out in September for Amsterdam 2018 letter. The trip is available qualified to compete in the National Final. to all students in the present year 7 - 9 The price of a main meal with pudding will be slightly increased to House Fundraising £2.25 from September. Watford Boys has always taken pride in its passion to work together and give back to the wider community and this spirit has yet again been enthusiastically captured this To apply or for guidance on Free year. The total amount raised over this academic year is just over £16,000. All forms in School Meals, please visit the majority of year groups have enthusiastically immersed themselves to raise money www.hertsdirect.org/freeschoolmeals with the full support of the House Captain Team. A range of entertaining and fun activities have taken place ranging from dress up mufti days, talent shows, a 24 hour maths challenge as well as teacher sponging and many more. We look forward to many more fun and collaborative events at the beginning of next year. Thank you for all your support in working together with us towards a greater cause.

Team WBGS comprising of Ms Hockin, Mrs Dunsby, Mrs De Lucia, Mrs Cregg, Mrs Montague, Mrs Lloyd, Mrs Mitchell

and Mrs Charlton successfully ran the Race for Life in Cassiobury Park recently and raised almost £1,000.

During the week of the general election Our new uniform provider, Mapac, in June the school held a hustings event will be holding a sizing day at the and a school election (for years 7-10). school on Tuesday 25th July 10 am - 2 The candidates were Aron Finkelstein - pm for students to try on school Labour, Amaan Manji - Conservative, uniform. Anyone who can’t make this Jacob Haddo - UKIP, Shyam Chandarana sizing opportunity can always visit us - Liberal Democrat and Charlie Scott for their new shop at 6 Mowat Estate, the Greens. They made some stirring Sandown Road, Watford, Herts, speeches, many that were indeed more WD24 7UZ. coherent and persuasive than those displayed during the general election

campaign by the actual party leaders. The results were: UKIP 48, Lib Dem 54, Green 72, Conservative 196, Labour 224.

In the Junior Maths Kangaroo a special mention must go to Hamish Starling (8C) and Miren Sanghrajka (7N) who both achieved merits placing them in the top 25% of those who sat the exam. Well done to the other boys who also sat the kangaroo and received qualifications. They are Kirijan Vignarajan, Luke Powney, Lewis Macleod, Jibran Khan, Akshay Mehta, Dev Datt, Arun Gill, Andrew Leib and Husayn Merali. A major congratulations to Yueyang Han (8N) who was one of 1200 students to sit the Junior Maths Olympiad and with an impressive score of 36 received a distinction and a bronze medal, again for those in the top 25% who sat the exam.

49 students visited Merville Battery where our Old Boy Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway led the 9th Battalion to secure this Normandy and the important site in the early hours of the 6th D-Day Landing beaches trip June 1944 ahead of the beach landings. He

did this against all the odds and with only 75 out of 600 troops who he set out with. The citation for his Distinguished Service Order read that his “utter disregard for

personal danger had been an inspiration to all his men”.

The students stayed on Sword Beach in

Lion Sur Mer and from there were able to visit Bayeux, Arromanches, Point Du Hoc

and Pegasus Bridge where another

Watford boy had helped liberate the first

bridge and building as part of the D-day We will be issuing all students with operations. Alf “Lucky Jim” Whitbread Student Planners at the start of term was part of the Horsa Glider team that in September. The cost is only £2. captured Pegasus Bridge in the early hours Payment can be made by Parentpay after 1st September and should be of the 6th June 1944. paid by 11th September. Students also visited the medieval citadel of Mont St Michel and visited the V2 Rocket site at La Coupole on the return

journey. Very many thanks to the staff

who gave up their time to lead the

expedition and to all the students who made the trip such an enjoyable experience

Music Update Our final concert of term, the Prizewinners’ and Performers’ Concert, took place on the Thursday evening of our Arts and Literary Festival and was a very successful evening of music making, brilliantly supported by students, parents and friends alike. There were wonderful solo performances from Yueyang Han, Matthew Kenny, Ben Post, James Rich, Oliver Dunn, Robbie Curwen, Eddie Cummins, Kaeshav Anand, Paul Greally, Sivanujan Sivakumaran, Siddarth Nayar, Joel Kelion, Jerry Yang, Jay Patel, Justin Ho and Tom Watts.

We also showcased some of the talented musicians that come to the Muse every

week to be part of our ensembles. The evening started with Leroy Anderson’s Bugler’s Holiday, which featured a number of our sixth form trumpeters who had recently gained Grade 8s or diplomas, and what a great sound they made! The Senior Choir

trebles sang with great gusto, firstly Adele’s Someone Like You and then Mac and Wroldsen’s Symphony, made famous by the Cambridge group, Clean Bandit. We were treated to excellent performances from the Friday Band with their programme of

Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars, Thousand Years by Hodges and Perri and Men In Black by Will Smith, and the Junior Brass Ensemble’s programme consisted of two blues pieces, Thomas Graf’s Who’s Got the Blues? and Raymond Premru’s Blues March. This

year, Mr Gates has run a Junior Guitar Ensemble, who gave their impressive inaugural performance playing a Pavane and Allemande by Susato. The Piano Trio also gave a superb performance of the first movement of Beethoven’s Ghost Trio and the

Crescendo Strings gave us a delightful rendition of the first movement of Gluck’s Sinfonie in G. Our adjudicator, Mrs Anthea Spensley, had decided that Tom Watts and Benedict Longstaff should be the recipients of the Rosebowl for the best performances in the Competition, and Mr Cooksey presented this at the end of the concert. This year, the Kienitz Cup was awarded to two Upper Sixth students, Kazu Sair (cellist) and Jonathan Hughes (timpanist) for their wonderful support of our extra-curricular music programme. The Nigel Compton Cup was presented to Praveen Kathirvasan for his exemplary perseverance and performance in his Grade 6 percussion exam in which he secured a mark of 97/100. Once again, a very big thank you to all those musicians who have involved themselves in school music, to everyone who has supported us this year and for all the encouragement that you have given. All boys currently having music lessons should have received their Music Report in the last week of term. Please take time to read these and reflect on them. As we are carrying out a Music Locker audit in the summer holidays, please ensure that your sons remove their instruments for practice over the holiday period. There is a waiting list for these lockers. A donation is requested to cover the cost of the padlock and key. Please email Mr Hussey if you would like to be added to the list.

During this final week of term we have run our final series of Associated Board music exams and the results of these will be available when we return in September. However, for anyone who can’t wait that long, please let Mr Hussey have a stamped addressed envelope before the end of term in order that the result can be sent out to you. Once again, boys have taken many music exams and we have had some wonderful results. We have even ventured into diplomas, so many congratulations to all those who have set themselves a personal target and taken a music exam this year.

Sports News The U12s have had a tough start to their WBGS cricket careers playing against some very strong opposition. Their enthusiasm and commitment representing the school has been fantastic and they have massively improved as a team. They had two excellent wins against local rivals St Albans and Roundwood Park. Yash Parikh has captained the team well and led from the front scoring over 250 runs which included three fifties. Charlie Moore has supported Yash well at the top of the order but unfortunately setting competitive totals is where the boys have struggled. Player of the season went to Yash Parikh whilst most improved went to Bhavyia Shah.

The U13’s have really improved as a team this year and started playing some excellent cricket. Their record stands at played 11 won 6 which they will be slightly disappointed with due to the nature of some of their losses. On their day they have proved to be one of the best teams in the county with excellent wins against Haberdasher’s Askes, St Albans and Aldenham. Once again they have been captained brilliantly by Ben Beesley who along with Toby Elliot have both scored over 300 runs each. A special mention

must go to Toby for his 117* against RGS. The pick of the bowlers were Priyansh Gajera and Neeyam Patel. Player of Season goes to Toby Elliot and Most Improved Neeyam Patel.

The U14’s have had a fantastic season dominating the cricket circuit. Their record

stands at played 14 won 12 and lost just 2. They have finished the season as County Cup champions with excellent wins against Haberdasher’s Askes and Hitchin in the semi- final and final. By winning this tournament they go through to the National Competition

next year to represent Hertfordshire. Sullyman Manzoor, Yuvresh Malhotra and Snehan Das have all scored over 300 runs. James Foley and Sageran Sudagaran have both also had match winning innings in the County Cup. Player of the season goes to Sullyman

Manzoor and most improved to Snehan Das.

The U15s have had an excellent year starting with a tour to Barbados where they went unbeaten, winning all four of their games. They came back to England and started the season with a bang winning their first 7 games. They beat Aldenham in the quarter final

of the County Cup which meant another encounter with St Albans who they beat earlier in the year. Unfortunately St Albans got revenge with a crushing victory but the boys th bounced back reaching the final of the Berkhamsed 6’s tournament. For the 4 year in a row, Ed Stock is the leading run scorer for this age group and once again has been supported well by James Ryan, Harry Kendal and Tommy Wheeler. The spin twins; Yousef Ahmed and Abdullaha Raja have been the pick of the bowlers cleaning up many middle orders. Player of the season goes to Ed Stock and most improved to Amash Shiraz. The 2nd team couldn’t go another season unbeaten but had some excellent wins against St Albans, John Lyon and Berkhamsted. They have been captained very well by Tom Milford and their record stands at played 7, won 3 and lost 4. Harris Malik finished as the leading run scorer with three consective 50’s on the bounce. He was supported well by Deil Patel and Jesse Rist. The pick of the bowlers were Tom Milford and Josh Pickard who at times were too good for many 2nd team batting lines ups.

The first team have had a tough year but battled well and finished the season with a good draw against the MCC. MCC declared on 254 and the boys gave it a good chase and just fell short of themselves getting to 220 for 8. They have played 12 games winning 4 and losing 5. The bowling has been fairly reliable with Aushan Gosrani being the pick of the bowlers, proving himself to be a very talented off spinner. He has been We wish to remind you if you are supported well by Ralph Curwen and Shrey Parikh. Unfortunately the batting has been parking on the school grounds for an very inconsistent; relying yet again on the young Ed Stock to score most of the runs. He event, please do not park in areas has had an excellent season scoring over 300 runs. This is a young team and fortunately that are clearly marked with no we do not lose any boys next year so expecting to bounce back with a very strong parking signs. Driveways and season. Tom Stock has captained the team very well and the boy’s enthusiasm and entrances must be kept clear from commitment has been brilliant all year. obstruction at all times. The Road to Wimbledon Tournament had a field of 28 players and was won by Alex Year 7 Doubles Runners Up Richman in year 9, who beat Eesa Siddiqi in the final. Alex went onto the regional qualifying competition where he came close to actually playing at Wimbledon,

before losing in a tie break.

The Under 15A Team had another good run to the county semi-finals. Captain Jack Shute in Year 10 has improved from last

year and the team won their three group stage matches against Haberdashers’ Boys, Aldenham and Parmiters, to

progress through to the county finals day held on July 6th at Queenswood School. U13 and U15 Finalists

They went down 8 rubbers to 4 in a closely

contested semi–final, despite victories for Jack and Ali 6-0 in their pair 1 doubles

rubber and Ali’s 6-0 singles win.

The Under 15B team also had great

successes this season with a team comprising: David O’Brien Year 10, Alex

Richman Year 9, Ally Cook, Year 10, Toby

Benton Year 9, Thomas Connor Year 9 and Jaishulin Harsiani Year 9. They won against

Aldenham and Haberdasher’s boys to

Vacancies in our Learning Support reach the county semi- finals where the Department for September 2017 have team beat to been posted on the school website. reach the County Finals. Unfortunately in the final they were beaten by Ashlyns

School 12 rubbers to 0. Congratulations this season should go to the much improved performances of Toby Benton, David O’Brien, Thomas Connor and Alex Richman, who was moved up to the A team during the season. The Under 13A team comprised players from Years 7, 8 and 9 with Eesa Siddiqi, Alejandro-To Salvatierra, Irfaan Kanji , Joshua Hurst, Cem Harwood, Aarav Banga, Dylan Ackenson Sergeant and Finn Mclean. The team got through their group stage as lucky losers after beating Haberdasher’s boys 7-6, Kings Langley 12- 0, but losing out to Parmiters 7-6. In the county quarter finals, the team beat 10-2 and then Roundwood Park School 10-2 to reach the county finals at Queenswood School. There the team was magnificent in defeating Parmiters in the final with great wins in the doubles for Irfaan Kanji and Alejandro-To Salvatierra who won their doubles rubber 6-3. The crucial win came in the first doubles pairing of Eesa Siddiqi and Joshua Hurst who teamed up to win 7-6. This proved decisive as the ranking would have suggested that the win would be Parmiters; however this doubles win was then backed up with singles wins for Irfaan Kanji and Alejandro-To Salvatierra to seal the team’s county final win. The Under 13A team will now go through to the county knock out stage in September. Congratulations to all of the boys who played for the Under 13 A team. Notable improvements this year have come from Cem Harwood and Joshua Hurst who demonstrated greater court sense and movement. Cem certainly seemed to benefit from all of his additional tennis in Portugal where he nearly toppled a member of the senior tennis A team in a match. The Under 13B team did not get through the group stage this year, but there were promising performances from Husayn Merali and Qaim-Ali Ravji. There were also strong debuts in the Under 12 team from Henry Peart, Hamish Watson, Qays Judge and Mohammed Habib whose tennis really seemed to improve over the season. The Year 7 Doubles tournament held at Haberdasher’s featured six different schools this year and runner up medals were won by Finn McLean and Husayn Merali, so congratulations to them.

The Year 7 & 8 Athletics team finished 16th in the county championships from 23

competing schools. A tough season but there are great prospects for the future with emerging talent. Captain Matthew Schofield led from the front in the 100m and constant good performances from Toby Elliott, Josh Hurst and Daniel Gourdarzi gave

us continuous points. The Find of the Season award this season went to Owen Bunn for the Hurdles, Long Jump and Relay. The award for the most valuable athlete went to Toby Elliott for High Jump, 200m and Relay.

The year 9 & 10 Athletics team had a superb season but narrowly missed out on the

chance for silverware in the county finals, they finished 9th from 23 competing schools. There were District champions in Alex Hayes in the 200m, Kai Tunstall in Discus and Adam Serag in the 1500m. School records have also been broken this

season by James Foley in the Y9 800m, Kai Tunstall Y9 Discus and Adam Serag Y9 1500m. Kai Tunstall was selected to represent Hertfordshire and competed at The National Championships. The Find of the Season Award went to Alex Hayes who has

dominated the 200m against Y10 competition. The most valuable athlete award went to Captain Kai Tunstall. Well done and thank you to all the Year 10s who competed in their last full season for the school. Park Run continues on Saturdays throughout summer. Cross Country practice will resume in September on Thursdays after school – all students welcome.

Friends of the School The next committee meeting is on Wednesday 20th September 2017 at the school. We are

always in need of help, so please do come along if you have time to support the school. Rachael Speirs, Secretary and Amanda Hardy, Treasurer, will be continuing, but we are unfortunately losing our Chair, Archana Singh, who has decided to stand down at the next

AGM. Kathryn Bourke has kindly agreed to provide cover for the Treasurer in the Autumn term. Thanks to Archana for all the commitment and energy she has put into the role for the last

three years. We are looking for a new chair to come forward to help the committee be the best it can be for the school! We are a friendly bunch, and it's a good way of getting to know your fellow parents and some of the more senior members of the school. Please

contact the Chair on [email protected] should you wish to nominate yourself and come along to our next meeting, or indeed should you have any questions for the committee. The AGM reports and minutes are available online at www.watfordboys.org

FOS helped to run the New Year 7 Funday on 1st July and managed to raise over £1,000 for the school, which included a donation of over £100 from parent Akash Shah (Match Day Merchandise Limited). The committee would like to thank all of those who turned up to

help on the day. A great day was had by all. Vinyasa Yoga sessions for strength, We are looking for new donations, for the school shop, please leave donations to be left flexibility and energy, 6th Form at reception marked for the attention of Hollie Rendall. Thanks to all those who have Centre at the School, Tuesdays 7- supported the school as well as those in the committee who have helped in the shop. 8.15pm and Wednesdays 7.30 – This year, we have focussed on requests for grants from individual departments and have 8.45pm. Cost £10, granted £3000 to the Geography department for some iPads and specific software for use [email protected] by all boys going on field trips but also for use in the classroom. We have also given £1000 to the Music department for the purchase of 7 keyboards for use by all boys throughout the school. CONGRATULATIONS to Stuart Miller who is this term’s winner of the WBGS Family Draw, who has won £79.04! The Family Draw has raised £612.88 for the school this term. Please join as it's only £25 per year and details can be found at http://www.watfordboys.org/NewsArticle.aspx?id=156