2014 Insight GAZETTE The annual review of the school year for Old Edwardians Issue 291 Inside... Record-breaking GCSE results Joe Speight on broadcasting and the World Cup KING EDWARD’S SCHOOL Punishment book returns to the archive BIRMINGHAM A message from.. Contents ..The Chief Master Event review: AP100 Campaign Launch Sometimes you just don’t know where things will lead. at the House of Commons 04 I remember nearly eight years ago the excitement of the Music Department when Robbie Ruisi came for a music The Insight interview: scholarship. But I don’t suppose that any of us expected Joe Speight 05 him to end up leading the National Youth Orchestra in the Albert Hall, playing a Stradivarius violin loaned to him by Business focus: an Old Edwardian, John Ludlow. Elliander Pictures and Rapportive 06 Four or five years ago Chris Johnson, the Director of Sport, thought it was a good idea to appoint a female PE Assistant Archive matters 08 to coach rugby. Not even he would have imagined that a few weeks ago two such PE Assistants, Mo Hunt and Emily Scarratt, would end up as World Cup winners and South Field was often OE News in brief 10 their training ground. Academic & school news 12 In recent years, we have had memorable speakers at Speech Day, Lee Child, Sir Paul Ruddock, Richard Wolffe and, this year, Andy Street, talking about the regeneration of Birmingham and the Sport 14 school’s role in that. As I write this, I am sitting in a hotel room in New York about to meet Messrs Child, Ruddock and Wolffe and other US alumni, but not Andy Street. Who’d have thought it? Performing arts 16 It’s called serendipity. Extra-curricular 18 ■ John Claughton (1975), Chief Master Merchandise 19 ..The Chairman The Insight Gazette has now established itself as an excellent publication to supplement and support the main Gazette. This edition has a really wide range of articles covering everything from Martin Leadbetter’s review of the AP100 Campaign Launch at the House of Commons to the Chamber Orchestra’s Italian tour. This year’s IB results are superb and they’re a hearty endorsement of the Chief Master’s bold decision to take the school along this more rigorous academic path, returning it to its rightful place at the leading edge of education. In no small part the increase in the number of Assisted Places has contributed to this success and I am pleased to say that the OEA has again played its part with a donation to the AP100 Campaign which will be followed by a significantly larger donation later this year. Coming up on Tuesday 23 September at 1.00pm is the AGM of the Association. Whilst I recognise that AGMs are not the most popular of events, this year’s AGM is important as a new constitution is being introduced. The aim is, now that the school has taken over the running of the OEA, to modernise the Articles of Association to meet its needs going forward. In the future we are aiming to have a committee of the Association that represents each decade of OEs to advise Simon Lerwill and his team on the best way to maintain contact with the general body Front cover image: of alumni. If you are able to attend you will be most welcome. For those who cannot attend I would Inside the House of Commons urge you to complete a proxy form so that your vote can be taken into account. where the first AP100 Campaign pg16 Launch event was held on ■ John Wheatley (1969), Chairman of the OEA Thursday, 5 June 2014. A stunning send-off for Peter Bridle after 38 years at King Edward’s School pg04 Event review: The Insight interview: Joe Speight (2004) AP100 Campaign Launch at the House of Commons Forthcoming Joe Speight (2004), talks events about his first ever broadcast, Martin Leadbetter (1969) gives his account of the AP100 Campaign getting started in the profession Old Edwardians Association Launch event held at the House of Commons. and commentating at the AGM, Tuesday 23 September 2014 World Cup. “It was a great evening”. This had been my verdict on the House of Commons reception Drinks and a buffet lunch will be provided, to launch the AP100 Campaign. However this left me around 245 words short of the piece prior to the AGM, which will take place in the I have now been asked to write and more importantly does not do justice to the occasion. Ruddock Performing Arts Centre. When did your interest in broadcasting start? Thanks to the good offices of parliamentary OEs David Willetts (1974) and John Hemming Tolkien Lecture Series, (1978), the former having been called abroad on Government business, we were hosted on Tuesday 7 October 2014 I’d watched so much football from age 11 the terrace at the House of Commons on a perfect early summer evening. Excellent canapés onwards that I started to pay more attention The speaker for the annual Tolkien Lecture and wine were served al fresco before the formalities began. to the way that football was broadcast will be Professor Gary Sheffield, one of rather than the football itself. I would watch John Hemming MP welcomed us to the House of Commons and spoke warmly of his own Britain’s foremost military historians, who television and listen to the radio all the time experiences at KES, before lending his support to the campaign. John Claughton outlined will give a lecture titled British Army Officers and throughout my time at school I was mad the ambitious programme to increase the number of Assisted Places to 100 from the current in the First World War: Recruitment, Training about sport and how it was reported. 60. Finally Rajiv Gogna (2010) spoke with real passion of the transformational impact on and Performance. Joe Speight with Lee Dixon at the 2014 World Cup his life of an Assisted Place at KES. He commented on the rounded nature of the education Biennial Dinner, When did you realise that he’d received which had culminated in his current studies at Oxford and his captaincy of Saturday 11 October 2014 At the end of my time at Cambridge I wrote to What’s next for you? the university darts team! you could make a career of every national newspaper, television station A special black-tie dinner held in Big School. broadcasting? and radio station to ask for work and luckily I I’ll be working again this season for Sky As the conversation and wine flowed we reminisced on the personal significance and wider This year’s dinner will also commemorate got a couple of offers of jobs. My first job was Sports on the Premier League and doing benefits of an excellent free education for young people regardless of parental income or the First World War and speeches will be It all kicked off with a competition at BBC with Setanta Sports, which gave me lots of other pieces for ITV, the Champions League, background. A number spoke of how they had been the first members of their families to given by three Old Edwardians serving in Radio WM just before I took my GCSEs. opportunities to learn my way in the industry, and hopefully big tournaments coming up attend university. the armed forces. They were searching for a new football but after two years they went bankrupt so I in future years in France in 2016 for the commentator and I thought there was no When I am asked what difference a free place at KES has made to my life I always respond London Dinner, went freelance and I’ve stayed that way ever European Championships and then the next chance I would win because I was only 16 but “it’s a long way from a council house in Shard End, Birmingham”. This encapsulates for me since. ITV and Sky are my main employers; World Cup in Russia in 2018. Monday 24 November 2014 I thought I’d have a go. I reached the finals of the significance of the AP100 Campaign. I work with Sky on the Premier League and The speaker at this year’s dinner will be Joe that competition, did my first ever live radio I’ve also covered rugby for ESPN. I’ve worked Have you got any advice for Martin Leadbetter (1969) Speight (2004), sports commentator who most broadcast and got the bug for broadcasting. recently worked as part of the ITV World Cup for ITV for the past three years on the FA Cup budding presenters? To find out more about the AP100 Campaign visit:www.trust.kes.org.uk/ap100 Doing that first broadcast gives you the and the Champions League, the European team in Brazil. You have to prove your enthusiasm and confidence that you can do it and that your Championships in 2012, and then this that you really want to be in the business, Birmingham Festive Drinks, voice is good enough. That’s one of the summer was my first World Cup with them. and that starts from a young age. Consume December 2014 (Date TBC) main things with broadcasting, whether it be all sorts of media in different formats (TV, commentating, presenting or reporting, you An informal opportunity for OEs to catch up over And how was the World Cup? print, radio, online), have an opinion on it, be a free drink at the German Market. have to have a good voice. I was lucky on inquisitive, and have a desire to keep learning.