KEGS News

201I/12 Issue 11 Monday 18 June 2012 INCLUDED IN THIS ISSUE:

From the Head National Schools A Level Geology Challenge KEGS Geographers wordly-wise KEGS Allotment 2012 Trafalgar Square with the LSO Sports Report From the Parents Association

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KEGS time capsule marks historic year

FOR BRITAIN, the year 2012 will be a year of considerable importance with the Diamond Jubilee and Olympic Games. Coming from a school where the importance of history is well recognised and where every student is proud of the heritage they have received from being a part of it, it seemed only right and proper for us to preserve a slice of history for the future to see, by way of a time capsule. Buried close to the flagpole opposite the new front of the school, the time capsule (built at the Ridgequest foundry, Lincolnshire) contained a whole host of memorabilia that KEGS students today will know and treasure (including various ties and sports kits) as well as school publications, copies of

By Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, Year 13 student

the newsletter and the KEGS Ambassador, the Creative Genius anthology and over one hundred images of places and people from around the school, to try and capture the essence of KEGS. In addition, a number of enthusiastic Year 7s wrote in with their visions of the future (hopefully their prediction that all teachers will be replaced by holograms wont come true!) The Time Capsule was buried on Thursday 24 May to be unearthed on the same date, 50 years in the future. We hope that KEGS students of the future will see that despite the unstoppable necessity of change, reinvention and modernisation, the same ethos (hard work mixed with a love for fun, a healthy dose of curiosity, and most of all the freedom and courage to express yourself however you can) will remain!
King Edward VI Grammar School Broomfield Road CHELMSFORD CM1 3SX www.kegs.org.uk 01245 353510 office@kegs.org.uk

Siddharth pictured left and the specially cast time capsule (above)

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by Tom Sherrington

From the Head

This is a very important time in the school year when we have just a few weeks to push forward with learning before the usual end of term business of trips, camps, exchanges and field trips. We have already given the message to Year 12 that they are now the school leaders and A2 courses have started in earnest; similarly Year 10 have an opportunity to step up into the important role leading the middle school and modelling our high expectations to the younger students. All Year 7 and 8 students are now involved in our roll-out of the homework monitoring system which we hope helps them to maintain standards and routines all the way through Key Stage 3. Year 9s have much to work for too, not least because we look to the emerging Year 10 for our new generation of leaders in areas such as Student Voice, Project 9 and the KEGS Ambassador from September. We have some key community events this term. Firstly there is Sports Day on Saturday 23 June and then the KEGS Community Festival on Saturday 7 July. We do expect most parents to attend both events as part of the allimportant home-school partnership and community building we have talked about so often. There is also the Summer Concert on Thursday 28 June; as always, this is not to be missed. Never been to KEGS concert? This is your chance. All in all it has been a really good year with parental support at a high level so please keep it up! It makes a huge difference. Thank you! It is now two years since we launched our twitter feed @KEGS_Chelmsford. Followers have slowly joined and we are close to the 500 mark. Increasingly we will use the feed to re-tweet messages from key sources such as UCAS and the British Museum to help keep our followers informed. If you haven't already joined, please do. During this term we will be launching staff and student 'IT Think Tanks' to explore a raft of new developments in IT for enhancing learning. If you are a parent with a particular interest in 'edtech' as it can be known, please let me know. For my part, I have started my own personal-professional twitter output, @headguruteacher linked

to a blog http://headguruteacher.com, 'guru' meaning teacher in Indonesia where I used to work. Most of my output relates to ideas and developments from KEGS so it may be of interest to you, with the usual caveat that the opinions expressed are all my own! Crucially, web-based employment, learning and research are set to grow exponentially and it is essential that KEGS students are able to harness contemporary communication technology in a disciplined and creative manner in order to be at the forefront of this revolution. The IT Think Tank will report back in due course! If you have never heard of Diigo, Dropbox or Khan Academy or set up streams on your tweetdeck, it is time to catch up! Finally, I'd like to commend the @KEGS_Ambassador twitter output to you; if you follow them, you will gain access to all of the back-issues of the KEGS Ambassador; they are well worth reading and re-reading. Thanks, as always to Theo Demolder and his team for taking the initiative to do this.

National Schools A Level Geology Challenge

by Dr Stuart Hitch, Head of Geogaphy

George Cox, Matthew Newton, Phillip Hammerson and Ethan Harradine took part in the final of the National Schools A level Geology Challenge at the Geological Society in Piccadilly, London. With little preparation (and Ethan who does not even do A level geology but was our secret weapon for the minerals round) the KEGS team was pitted against the might of the regional winners from the South West of England, the West Country and South Wales. Following last minute cramming of geological knowledge in Cafe Nero down the road KEGS was first to present. This went down well, in fact very well; until the marks were announced when we were placed in a rather disappointing last. Maybe overrunning the allocated five minutes by another nine further inutes was the problem. What is that about following

William Smith looks on stoney faced as the KEGS Geology team (L to R) Ethan Harradine, Phillip Hammerson, George Cox and Matthew Newton finish National Challenge Runners-up

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the instructions closely? It would require a seismic shift if KEGS were to retrieve this one. The team must rise (is that eustatically or isostatically George?) to the challenge. Just in case things continued like the first round Dr Hitch photographed the trophy as it was unlikely on our current performance we would ever see it again and Photoshop is a wonderful thing isn't it? The quiz round saw KEGS on 51 move effortlessly from last to 3rd trailing the leaders on 59 and 61 by a massive 10 points. Undaunted and thrusting the team forward George made a dash for glory he was not flagging, or rather he was as there was no buzzer, the leading teams were plunged into despair and folded in front of our very eyes as question after question George was first to answer and almost without fault "Seismicity!" Yes, "Aquifer!" Yes, "Footwall" Yes, "Gneiss" Nooooooo !! "Schist!". Its going to be a close one remarked Ethan while the final marks were counted. He was not wrong. KEGS were not fourth, not third but had they done enough? After great suspense the result was announced and by just two points KEGS became 2012 National A Level Geology Challenge runners up. Its not about the winning its about

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the taking part, sir. Yeah, right said Dr. Hitch and How did you get Mohs scale of hardness wrong? We revised that in Cafe Nero! And George, it was isostatic! And what happened to the poster round?" Here's to next year and less last minute cramming. As their runnersup prize the team members have all been made honorary Candidate Fellows of the Geological Society for 2012-2013.

KEGS Geographers worldy-wise, well almost.

by Dr Stuart Hitch, Head of Geogaphy

was something in their preparation? Get over it boys the questions are coming thick and fast and you have a reputation to maintain. It took the first half of the quiz for the KEGS A team (Ethan Harradine, WeiNan Zhou and Lawrence Watts) to settle to the geography and at half time they still preferred to focus on a somewhat pedantic approach to the quiz rather than to the geography. As a result the A team trailed well behind the KEGS B team (William Tilbrook, James Glover and Ben Williams) who themselves were placed uncomfortably back in fourth place. Fortified by an excellent evening meal and some last minute swotting up around the dinner table the second half saw a resurgence of the KEGS A team with their map reading skills coming to the fore. Although we continued to close in on the leaders throughout the second half, the geography of sport round proved the final nail in the KEGS coffin as womens tennis,

m en s t enn is , o bs cure te nn i s tournaments and even more obscure tennis venues were really not our bag. Despite a great final round it was all unfortunately just too little, too late and despite finishing on 77 and overtaking KEGS B, just one point behind on 76, KEGS A team finished in third place with Brentwood A (83 points) and Brentwood B (80) points just creeping ahead. A valiant effort by all 6 boys but no national final for KEGS this year. Still there is always next year so swot up on your tennis boys !

Team A

Six KEGS students, hand-picked from Year 8 to Year 10 for their vast knowledge of all things Geography, together with Dr Hitch ventured to New Hall School to challenge 12 other teams for the annual Geographical Association Worldwise Quiz regional title. The boys were unsettled, something was just not right. The signs were not looking good and both teams chances were dealt a severe blow by a very slow start. Was it jet lag or fatigue following a long hard day at KEGS or

and Team B

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KEGS Allotment 2012

by Jon Levitt, Head of Year 10

The allotment has been a quieter place in 2012. One strip has been left fallow for the soil to rest, whilst the other wasnt planted until the end of April due to the volume of rain; even then cultivating was heavy going. After three years of patient nurturing we now have an entire plot devoted to herbs and lavender, whilst the two rhubarb crowns managed five kilos for one large crumble. At the time of writing the strawberries were flowering nicely and should produce a good crop. We then have a sizeable crop of potatoes in a range of varieties that

have coming on nicely. Mr Pirathapan also kindly donated eight pumpkin plants for our House competition, the results of which should be on a large scale in the autumn. Finally, I would like to welcome our new neighbours, the chickens. I hope they survive the flying footballs better than some produce has.

Trafalgar Square with the LSO

by Ben Kinder, Year 8 student

As I am a member of Havering Music School, I was lucky enough to have been recommended for a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra in Trafalgar Square, along with six other people from Havering. Having previously had a rehearsal for a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, I and around 100 other young wind instrument players from the boroughs of London travelled to Trafalgar Square for a huge open-air concert on 12 May. When we arrived, we were shepherded into St Martins-in

the-fields, an old church where we had another rehearsal. The piece we were playing was the Lite of Spring, an adaptation of the famous Rite of Spring by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. After our rehearsal, we headed to Trafalgar Square, where got on the stage for the first time. There we were met by the principal conductor of the LSO, Valery Gergiev, who is arguably one of

the worlds leading conductors. We had a first rehearsal with Gergiev, and the full LSO wind section, and found that we were actually replacing the string section. After our rehearsal we had a break in St. James Park, before heading back to Trafalgar Square. We waited backstage while the LSO performed Fireworks and The Firebird, both also by Stravinsky. Then it was our turn. On a huge screen, a video played whilst we were setting up, in which I had a starring role. Then we played. The piece went really well. When we stood up for our bows at the end, I realised how many people were there watching. Trafalgar Square was absolutely packed. Apparently they were expecting over 8000 people! It was a great experience and a thoroughly enjoyable day.

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KEGS News 2011/12

Sports Report
CRICKET RESULTS
Year 8 beat Shoeburyness by 65 runs KEGS 141-3 (Oliver Heazel 86*) Shoeburyness 76 all out (Albie Nuttall 5-6)

Year 10 beat King John School by 6 wickets King John 70 all out KEGS 74-4 (Karam Lalli 34)

1st XI beat Campion school by 31 runs KEGS 104-5 (Rahul Patel 20, Charlie Prudence 18*) Campion 73 all out (Luke Jewers 4-8)

U13 competition, 2nd round KEGS beat Saffron Walden by 4 wickets Saffron Walden 49 all out (Oliver Heazel 3-12) KEGS 50-6 (Jovett Cordova-Harris 14*)

Forthcoming Events
w/c 18 June Health Week Friday 22 June Year 8 reports Saturday 23 June - Sports Morning Thursday 28 June - Summer Concert , 7pm Friday 29 June Year 10 reports Monday2 July-Friday 13 July Year 11 work experience Thursday 5 July Prospective Parents Information Evening Friday 6 July Year 7 reports Friday 6 July Year 7/8 disco at CCHS Saturday 7 July - Summer Festival w/c Monday 9 July Tours of the school for Year 5 students Monday 16 July Newsletter 12 published Wednesday 18 July Year 9 reports

GRAMMATICUS CONCERT The joint parents choir for KEGS & CCHS are holding a SUMMER CONCERT:7pm on Thursday 12 July At Chelmsford County High School Broomfield Rd, Chelmsford Fundraising for CCHS PA Tickets 4 in advance, 5 on the door Email: sraybould@hotmail.com

HAVE YOU GOT NEWS FOR US?

NEWSLETTER 12 PUBLICATION DATE: MONDAY 16 JULY 2012 All copy should be sent to the KEGS News editor Lindsey Thompson
(lthompson@kegs.org.uk) by 10.00am on Monday 9 July 2012

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Parents Association
PRESIDENT GOPAL PIRATHAPAN (pa@kegs.org.uk) Summer Festival: 7 July This is just 19 days away! The Grand Draw ticket envelopes will be given to students this week. This year to try to get the tickets to reach parents and guardians (and not just be left in lockers!) we are offering the students the chance of winning an Amazon voucher if they get the form, which is enclosed with the tickets, signed and returned to school. The Grand Draw is a major fund raiser for the PA and we hope you will be able to support us. Any unsold tickets may be returned to the school for resale. Summer Festival Programme Adverts We are able to offer advertising space to all parents and friends of KEGS in this years programme. Full and half page spaces are available at reasonable prices. Would you like to support the school whilst advertising your company or services? Please get in touch via our email address. All details of these events are available from pa@kegs.org.uk Summer Festival Helpers Required We are also looking for helpers to set up, run the PA stalls, and clear up on the day. You dont have to commit for all day you can choose as little as one hour slot. Please let us know when you can help us. Our plans are Set up starts:- 8.00am Festival starts:- 12.30noon Stall to run:- (12.30 1.30pm); (1.30pm 2.30pm); (2.30pm 3.30pm) Clearing:- 3.30pm 5.00pm.

All details of these events are available from pa@kegs.org.uk