bablake

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Sunday’s Football Match

Last Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final, where Coventry narrowly missed out on getting to the final, was incredible. The game had everything. Many of our community were either at Wembley or were watching on television. Even those with little interest in football found themselves caught up in the drama of the match. As I suspect everyone now knows, it wasn’t to be and the length of Haji Wright’s toenail was the difference between success and failure.

Very few people have heard of Anthony Pratt. He was born in 1903, lived in Birmingham for most of his life and he invented the board game, Cluedo. Cluedo is one of the most well-known and successful board games of all time, in the same league as Monopoly or Scrabble, and has sold over 150 million copies in 40 countries. Its origins are very humble - Anthony Pratt dreamt up the game during the bombing raids of World War Two when he was stuck at home unable to leave his house. His wife, Elva, designed the board and he came up with the characters and different murder weapons. The ten characters originally envisaged by Anthony Pratt were reduced to six with Colonel Yellow being renamed Colonel Mustard, and the weapons were amended too, for example, a bomb was replaced by a candlestick and a syringe by some lead piping.

They applied for a patent for the game in 1944, which was granted three years later, after which the game was sold to the company Waddington’s. Sadly, initial sales were slow and in 1953 Anthony Pratt signed over the rights to all overseas royalties for a sum of £5,000. If he had not done so, he would have made millions, given the success of the game around the world.  When Anthony Pratt talked about missing out on a personal fortune, he expressed no bitterness over this fact. ‘A great deal of fun went into it,’ he said. ‘So why grumble?’

So perhaps Sunday was a lesson for us all. There might have been a great deal of disappointment, but what excitement! What fun! Do not worry about what might have been, that will pass. Those who watched at Wembley should remember the exhilaration for many years to come.

(Bulletin No 105 – Friday 26 April 2024)

#ccfc #board games

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Online Safety

This week’s blog is a guest edition by our Pastoral Deputy Head, Mrs Press.

Hate messages and blackmail around indecent imagery have become serious issues in today's digital age, with a growing number of cases for school-aged children. Such crimes can have devastating effects on the victims involved.

Luis Mijangos, a skilled hacker, targeted women and teenage girls by tricking them into downloading malware onto their computers. This malicious software gave him access to their personal files, photos, and videos, and even allowed him to control their web cameras and microphones without their knowledge. Mijangos used this information to blackmail his victims, threatening to publish explicit images if they did not comply with his demands. This type of harassment can be incredibly frightening and isolating for its victims.

Another form of harassment related to indecent imagery is sextortion, which involves threatening or blackmailing someone with intimate information, images, or videos. Sextortion can occur in various ways - during a relationship, in online activity, or through sharing images on messaging apps. It is important for young people to understand that sexting or sharing explicit images is illegal and can have serious consequences. Once an image is sent, the sender loses control over where it goes next and it can easily be shared without their consent. It is crucial to think about the potential consequences and risks before engaging in such activities. Of course, for young people, their impulsivity means that they tend to act first and think later.

Last month, an inquest ruled that Dinal De Alwis, a 16-year-old boy from a leading London independent school, had killed himself after being blackmailed over nude images. A police investigation found that at 1.00am on the day he died he had been sent two naked photos on Snapchat. The blackmailer threatened to release the images to 'all of his followers' if he did not send £100.

The number of cases of child sexual exploitation reported by under 18s to the National Crime Agency (NCA) has risen from 243 to 890, a 266 per cent increase from 2020 to 2022. The spike has almost exclusively been driven by sextortion cases. Reports indicated that those being targeted by criminals were mainly aged 14 – 30, but some cases involved children as young as 13. In a recent article on sextortion in The Sunday Times (March 10, 2024), police reported that sexting has become a routine part of adolescent life.

Last Friday, it was announced that WhatsApp intends to change its age limit from 16 to 13 in line with limits set in other first world countries. It saddens me that a social media platform’s rationale is because that’s how it is elsewhere, rather than considering the implications on children’s health and wellbeing, particularly when I see the irreversible damage that such sites can have on young people’s lives.

The trolling and abuse within the toxic online world of social media that consumed every waking hour of Brianna Ghey’s final years is now all too familiar to her mother, Esther.

Esther Ghey recently outlined her five-point plan to safeguard children from online harm, to protect their mental health and to create a legacy for Brianna:

Oblige mobile phone companies to sell devices on which monitoring apps with tamper-proof control are already installed

Roll out technology to monitor concerning and harmful words being searched online, including on mobile devices

Introduce a public health awareness campaign on the dangers of children spending too long on their phones, with a recommendation that their screen time be limited – ideally to two hours a day

Sell phones that do not allow under 13s to access social media apps and oblige tech firms to make a concerted effort to verify a user’s age.

Introduce mindfulness lessons in school, to give young people the resilience, self-compassion and empathy to better cope with challenges of modern-day life.

Esther was unaware at the time that alongside TikTok, where Brianna was enthusiastically producing videos on applying make-up, dancing or lip syncing to songs, she was also accessing websites that showed videos of self-harm content related to eating disorders; Brianna found ‘pro-anorexia’ sites through Twitter/X. The algorithms meant that once Brianna showed an interest in these topics, her phone kept feeding her more of the damaging content and her mental health suffered as a result.

When I review the five-step plan that Esther is campaigning for, I can see that its overall goal is to improve the mental health of young people, and no-one would argue with that. As a school, we regularly address the harms of technology, offering support to families whose children have overshared, leaving a trail of vulnerability for all concerned. In our Life Choices curriculum, we deliver lessons in mindfulness, teaching pupils strategies for managing stress and anxiety. We also teach about child sexual exploitation, including the differences between a health and unhealthy relationship and we deliver lessons around online safety including sexting, trolling, phishing and online hate.

If we are to reduce the likelihood of tragedies, such as we have seen with Dinal and Brianna, then we must continue to prioritise the safeguarding of our children by finding teaching moments both at school and home. Please, keep having conversations around what content your child is viewing, keep checking and monitoring their phones, keep insisting that their devices remain downstairs overnight and maintain clear boundaries around how much of their day is spent scrolling.

Let us continue to work towards creating a safer and more respectful online environment for everyone.

Our Pact App

Family Links App

Gill Press, Deputy Head

(Bulletin No 104 – Friday 19 April 2024)

#online safety #safeguarding #mental health

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Performance

At the end of last term, it was a great pleasure to congratulate so many of our sports teams on their outstanding successes during the winter sports programme. Someone may correct me, but I cannot remember a time when we have won so many trophies. We were also able to celebrate the Sixth Form’s outstanding achievements in national academic challenges such as the Biology and Chemistry Olympiads. With many pupils receiving multiple accolades, it shows that that high levels of determination and success in one area breeds success in others.

The first part of this term is all about the final preparations for a different type of performance, as all pupils are thinking ahead to their examinations. This is especially the case for Year 11 and the Upper Sixth, who are just a few weeks away from their GCSEs or A levels, but all pupils will soon have some form of formal assessment.

Assuming we need a measure, I think examinations are the least bad way that we currently have of measuring achievement, although AI may give us more options in the future. Learning can be difficult, especially getting to a point of being able to perform in examinations; it is not something that usually comes naturally.

We can all probably remember a time when we thought that we knew or understood something, yet weren’t able to complete the task in an examination, possibly kicking ourselves when the paper was returned and we could see mistakes in areas that we thought we had fully understood. While it is difficult to avoid careless errors completely, thanks to cognitive science, we know which revision techniques are likely to be more effective than others. In the early 1890s, an academic named Kate Sanborn delivered a series of lectures on the topic “What is Genius?” She defined genius as a mix of “inspiration” and “perspiration”. “Talent is perspiration,” she said, explaining that genius required more perspiration than inspiration. Working hard is vital, but we also must practise the right things, at the right time and in the right way. I often tell pupils about the need to replicate what happens in the examination room in their revision and the guides that we issued before half term contain a number of techniques that can help them to do this. It is also true that little and often is a more effective approach that will reduce anxiety in comparison to leaving everything to the last minute.

I know that this period can be challenging for pupils and families, but staff are here to support. I am sure that we are all looking forward to the summer, when the exams will be over and the sun will shine!

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 103 – Friday 12 April 2024)

#exams #gcses #a levels

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Our Diverse Community

I think that some of the recent discourse in politics and the media has been unhelpful, such as the article in the last weekend’s Times, with the headline “No wonder Britain is so divided - we’re too diverse.” To me this doesn’t reflect the good that is happening in society, especially in education. I sometimes wonder if I live in a different world to everyone else because what I see in Bablake and Coventry is very different.

I am very proud of the diversity within our school community. Our pupils come from a wide variety of backgrounds and yet share so much, including our belief in the importance of education and in how we behave towards each other. Despite occasionally getting things wrong, the care that pupils show to one another is exceptional. This does not, however, mean that we are complacent and we know that there is always more that we can do. Our INC Society has helped to make us reflect upon some of our practices and I am grateful for its input into school life.

On Monday, Revd Su McClellan, who is Deacon of Coventry Cathedral and works for Embrace the Middle East, led a powerful assembly. Linking to our responsibilities to promote peace and reconciliation, she spoke about the current war in Israel and Gaza. The emphasis was on perception and true understanding of a complex situation and how to apply those lessons in our everyday life.

Then on Tuesday, we celebrated Iftar at school with some of our Bablake families and I genuinely think that this one of the highlights of my year. Iftar is one of the religious observances of Ramadan, and is often done as a community, when observers gather to break their fast together. A meal is taken just after prayer, which is around sunset. It is an honour to take part in this ceremony and sharing food together is always a joy. There is also evidence that when we eat together, it contributes to improved mood, perhaps something in our busy lives that we probably don’t do enough. At the Iftar, we were visited by another member of the Cathedral, Revd Canon Mary Gregory, who spoke briefly about fasting and faith and how this is shared in Christianity. There is far more that we have in common than that which divides us.

These are just two examples of things that happened at Bablake this week which illustrate some of the ways we celebrate and value our community. As Sunder Katwala, Director of British Future, wrote recently, “Integration is often invisible when it works, while failures of integration stick out like a sore thumb. We naturally take the everyday experience of living together in schools, workplaces and neighbourhoods for granted.” I am so proud of our community because we are able to take so much for granted.

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend.

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 102 – Friday 15 March 2024)

#iftar #diversity #community #bablake

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Scholarship and Reading

I have spent part of the last two weeks interviewing Year 11 pupils who had applied for a Sixth Form Academic Scholarship. It has been a wonderful distraction from some of other parts of my job, since I get to talk to such interested and interesting young people.

This year’s applications are probably the strongest I have seen. We ask pupils to write a short essay on a topic of their choosing and the subjects covered this year have included: the influence of Katherine Parr, differential equations, the Israel–Hamas war, the justice system, human life expectancy, drugs in sport and AI. In the interview, they have to talk about the essay and, despite the advent of Chat-GPT, I have been pleased by their ability to further develop the arguments in their essay.

We also ask about what they are currently reading or the last book they read and I have been pleasantly surprised by the range of titles, including many of the classics, that have been discussed. As well as explaining the reason why the book was chosen, many of the candidates spoke more widely about why they read. They often recognised the benefits, such as helping them to relax, improving concentration and memory and increasing vocabulary, knowledge and creativity.

Yesterday was World Book Day and I enjoyed a comment on social media that said Julia Donaldson was bringing out a new book, ‘The Amazing Adventure of the Kids in White T-Shirts and Leggings’, to help parents on World Book Day! We frequently reiterate the importance of reading and this week I was interested in a report about the difference between reading online or on paper. Until recently, there has been no rigorous study looking at this but a recent piece of research, working with children and teenagers, concluded that reading from paper rather than screen seems to be consistently associated with deeper comprehension and learning.

We often hear lots of great recommendations of what to read and this week the English Department has highlighted four books that they would encourage pupils to read in their ‘4 before 14’ campaign. Whatever your plans may be for the weekend, given the many advantages, I hope that you are able to put some time aside to escape into a book.

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 101 – Friday 8 March 2024)

#scholarship #books and reading #world book day

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Make it Memorable

It has been an unusual and often uplifting week. We are in the midst of the recruitment season and I find it exciting to hear from teachers wishing to join us about their passion for their subject and for teaching. We have also started interviews for Sixth Form Scholarships and speaking to pupils about their journey at Bablake, their hopes for the future and their love of learning gives me great confidence for the future.

Last Sunday, I attended the sad and joyous thanksgiving service for the former Headmaster of Trent College in Nottingham, Jonathan Lee, who was also a relative of mine. The chapel was packed and we heard from many former pupils, staff and family members about how he had changed their lives. As well as leading the school, he was a physics teacher and one of the stories involved a lesson with a practical element. The class would be marched out onto the playing fields to see three tins placed on the ground. A pupil was asked to kick the first and it travelled through the air. Another pupil was chosen to kick the second. By now, an element of competition had arisen and usually the second tin travelled a bit further. He would then ask for volunteers for the third and often a confident, possibly over-confident, pupil would put themselves forward. They would take a big run up and attempt to launch the tin over the rugby posts. The third tin was full of sand. It didn’t travel far. As an introduction to the concept of inertia, it was never forgotten.

You will be pleased to hear I am not advocating precisely the same approach, but making learning memorable is one of the many challenges for both pupils and teachers. There are lots of tricks that we can use, including using stories, images, humour and demonstrations. Often having the information in two different formats can help us recall the information later. This technique is known as dual-coding and more information about it can be found at https://www.century.tech/news/what-is-dual-coding-theory-and-how-can-it-help-teaching/.

One of the very clear themes that came through from the thanksgiving service was that many of the memories shared related to school trips and expeditions. These activities have the potential to change lives by sparking an interest and giving new experiences and this is why we put so much emphasis onto our co-curricular programme. Personally, one of the highlights of the school year is our week in Snowdonia during the summer holiday, watching how pupils approach the various activities and challenges, from jumping into the sea to washing up (the latter often proving more difficult than the former!).

Jonathan Lee was a key believer in the need for opportunities outside the classroom, where pupils could take risks. Listening to these same pupils, who are now middle-aged, showed that he was right. He would always ask me about Bablake and I am sure he would approve of much that we have on offer.

In school news, the sporting success has continued this week with some fantastic results in national competitions. Congratulations to all involved and I encourage you to subscribe to our social media platforms to get the most up to date news.

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend.

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 100 – Friday 1 March 2024)

#bablake #memories #activity

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One part of my job is meeting families who are considering sending their son or daughter to Bablake. In these meetings I never do a hard sell, something I suspect I would not be very good at, but instead try to give parents a chance to ask questions about the School and to answer these as openly as I can. I think that Bablake is a wonderful school, but a decision on where to send your son or daughter should only be taken with careful consideration and as much information as possible. We only have one chance at education, and it is a precious gift, often only made possible through significant parental sacrifice.

While I like to think meeting the Headmaster is important, our best marketing comes from our pupils and parents; put simply, happy parents and happy children will spread the word. On Wednesday morning, we ran an ‘Open House’ event, where families could visit and see the School in action. They were shown around by Sixth Formers and, despite the heavy rain, our visitors were very impressed by the engaging, confident, polite, ambitious, humble, and interested young people they encountered. Earlier in the week, our Upper Sixth students took part in our Mock Interview Morning and we are very grateful for the support of former pupils and parents who supported the event. One of the interviewers commented, “They (the students) will greatly contribute to our future professionally and socially." Our pupils are our greatest advocates and I continue to be proud of them.

I hope that you had a good half term break. Some pupils enjoyed day trips on the Friday and it was good to follow the progress of the ski trip to Austria. This will be a short term and Year 11 and the Upper Sixth are very much into the run in towards their exams. Our pupils’ fantastic achievements and performances continue and please do keep an eye on our social media accounts to get up-to-date information. This week, the F1 in Schools teams won a number of awards including ‘Best Engineered Car’ and the basketball teams continued their march towards world domination.

You may or may not know that we have a weather station at our playing fields, with records dating back to 1870. I am told that, with just a few days to go before the end of February, this winter has recorded 312.6mm of rain at Bablake and only winter 1976-77 (327mm) was wetter over the past 154 years! This year’s total was calculated before the rain from the last few days has been added, so by the time we reach March, it may well have been the wettest winter on record. It certainly feels damp, but thankfully this hasn’t impacted too much on our co-curricular programme and I am grateful to our grounds and site staff who have kept our facilities open. I am sure, like me, you are looking forward to warmer and drier weather!

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 99 – Friday 23 February 2024)

#bablake #weather #ski trip

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Like Electricity

It has been a short half-term, but that hasn’t reduced how much we have tried to fit in. With so much going on, there have been many highlights and some of the inevitable challenges. We are lucky that our community is made up of such a superb group of people, including pupils and parents, as we work through setbacks and celebrate the many successes together. At the end of last week, Billy Elliot was superb and then on Saturday morning, I went to watch the rugby away at Bishop Vesey Grammar School. The performances of all the teams were impressive and I amazed to see Jaron, who had been playing the role of Billy the previous three evenings, on the rugby pitch just a matter of hours after the final curtain!

When I spoke to the cast of Billy to congratulate them, I told them how pleased I was that they had chosen to do the show. It is full of fun and energy and is very emotional at times, but also contains some strong messages that link to what we aim to do at Bablake.

On the surface, Billy Elliott is the story of a working-class boy who wants to be a ballet dancer; he is growing up during the time of the miners’ strike, but it is so much more than that. It is a story about self-expression, tolerance, and gender expectations. It’s a story about how opportunities can ignite a passion and changes lives. One of the most moving scenes is when Billy finally auditions at The Royal Ballet School. Just as Billy and his father are about to leave the room, one of the judges on the panel asks Billy, “What does it feel like when you’re dancing?” Billy pauses before saying the standard teenage response of “dunno.”

When he eventually answers, he makes a stumbling but powerful statement. “It feels good. It’s sort of safe and that… But, once I get going, I sort of forget everything. I sort of disappear. I can feel a change in my whole body. I’m just there… I have this fire in my whole body. I’m flying… like a bird. Like electricity… Yeah, like electricity.”

Our motto - ‘The Spirit of Opportunity’ - is about having hundreds of moments, every day, that might ignite that passion. It’s about what happens in the classroom, on the sports field, in the theatre or during the many other activities that make up a Bablake day.  For example, on Tuesday, one of our Sixth Formers, Rhea, took part in the next round of the Historical Association’s Great Debate. I covered her triumph in the regional round in a previous blog https://www.tumblr.com/bablake/734593867915067392/the-great-debate?source=share. I am delighted to tell you that she has now been selected as one of the finalists and has been invited to perform at Windsor Castle next month! We wish her every success.

I hope that you and your families all have a fantastic half-term break.

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 98 – Thursday 8 February 2024)

#opportunity #billy elliot

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Holocaust Memorial Day

Saturday 27th January marked the 24th Holocaust Memorial Day. As I reflected on how to include this in my assembly earlier this week, my mind was drawn to the day in October 1999 when I visited the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau with a group of students and teachers as part of the first ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ course, run by the Holocaust Educational Trust. As a result of that visit, I was privileged to attend the inaugural Memorial Day Commemoration in London in 2001.

On 27th January 1944, the camp was liberated by Soviet troops. After some consideration, the date was chosen for the Memorial Day, ‘ultimately because it encompasses many significant aspects of the Holocaust’. It was also chosen because one of the stated aims of the Day is ‘a specific focus on young people’ and so it had to fit well within the school year.

Two pupils accompanied me, and they were not the most academic pupils. To be honest, I was somewhat surprised that they were the only ones, in the end, who wanted to go. I knew that they would have to give a presentation to other pupils on their return; this was one of the prerequisites for being accepted on the course. As it turned out, I should not have doubted them, as they were exactly the right students to go.

The day of the visit was drab, cold and overcast. I was expecting it to be a difficult day, but when we first arrived at Auschwitz I, the labour camp, I was taken aback. The buildings were a warm, red brick, the paths were tree-lined, laid out with honey coloured gravel. In part, this was because the camp had previously been an army barracks. It was also used as a show camp by the Nazis to demonstrate that nothing untoward was happening. As our tour started, the mood of the group was reasonably buoyant – a bit tired, perhaps, from our early start, but interested, involved. The first huts contained information about the camp, which was horrific enough, but as we entered the later huts, which were filled to the ceiling with peoples’ belongings: suitcases, glasses, prosthetic limbs, stacks of human hair, the mood of the group became quieter, sombre, tearful.

The museum at Auschwitz was difficult enough, but the second part of the visit, which was the death camp at Birkenau, was a different experience entirely. By this time, it was starting to get dark. The cold intensified. The air became misty. The atmosphere was chilling and not just because of the weather. We looked around the remains of the prisoners’ huts. We learnt about the mass killings and the crematoria where the bodies were destroyed. It became colder and colder, darker and darker. We finished the visit in front of Crematorium II. The Nazis had tried to destroy the building before they abandoned the camp. We stood in front of the ruins, in the dark, in the mist. Prayers were said and we left lighted candles in red tea-light holders. We turned and started to walk away.

The guide suggested that we walk out of the camp, along the railway lines that had brought trains of prisoners to their deaths. As we walked, the glimmer of light from the candles grew fainter and fainter. No-one spoke, not as we walked out, nor on the coach as we travelled to the airport, and hardly at all on the plane home.

When we arrived back at Gatwick, it was very late. I was tired and the boys were quiet. I couldn’t remember where I had parked the car and when I eventually found it, I did not have enough money to exit the carpark. It felt like a ridiculous end to such a difficult day. When we finally got going, however, the mood changed. The students, sitting in the back of the car, could not stop talking. Their outrage at what they had learned was palpable. They asked question after question; they could not understand how such atrocities had happened.

Over the next couple of weeks, they prepared their presentation. They spoke in front of all Year 10 and 11 pupils as well as our local MP. Their sense of outrage continued and the presentation was powerful. I realise that Joe and John, those 17/18-year-olds, must now be men in their early 40s. I have no idea what they are doing, but I have faith that they are living useful and constructive lives and that they will not have forgotten what they learned on that day in October 1999, because it was such a powerful lesson. The purpose of Holocaust Memorial Day is to commemorate the dead, but also to teach the young, so that they understand the wrongs of the past and help to prevent the same terrible acts happening again. It is this underlying purpose that has always motivated me as a history teacher.

George Santayana wrote in 1905, ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. Holocaust Memorial Day is a stark reminder, in these difficult times, of the need to remember the lessons of history.

Mrs Skilton

Deputy Head Academic

(Bulletin No 97 - Friday 2 February 2024)

#memorial #auschwitz #jewish history

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The Parents' Association

This week, I wanted to highlight the work of the Parents’ Association, partly because we had an enjoyable meeting earlier this week when we reviewed last term’s activities and looked ahead to the rest of the year. The PA’s work provides opportunities for Bablake families to join together, it supports school events and raises money to spend in areas that are not covered by our core funding. Last year, much of the financial support provided was for playground equipment, including the new outdoor table tennis tables, which are much enjoyed by pupils.

Over the last few months, the PA has supported our Christmas Carol Service and the Physics Department’s cloud gazing event by providing refreshments, it organised the highly successful Christmas Fayre and ran an OBNO sale, as well as putting on a disco in the Junior School. The committee gives a lot of time to support us, for which we are very grateful, and is always looking for more volunteers. At the moment, much of the work falls to a small number of people and there are many ways in which you can support them, some of which do not take much time. These include:

Downloading the Easyfundraising app and link it to Bablake. This makes a small donation each time you use many online retailers, including Amazon. Although it may seem like a small sum, it all adds up and can raise hundreds of pounds each year with minimal effort.

Joining the 200 Club. For a small annual donation (currently £10), you get the chance to win a cash prize each month. More information can be found at https://www.bablake.com/551/information/parents-association.

Adding your name to the volunteering list. This does not have to be a significant commitment – for example, some parents are on the list to help only with the Christmas Fayre (the PA’s largest event) or with OBNO.

Continuing to donate items of the new uniform for the OBNO (please do not give items of the old uniform).

The PA committee is a new team that would love to hear from you. We all benefit from their support and they are a key part of our community. Any help, however small, that you can give them would be much appreciated.

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 96 - Friday 26 January 2024)

#parentsassociation #community #bablake

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Feedback

Occasionally I am invited to social occasions and sometimes these are attended by people not in education. As people get to know each other, I am often asked what I do. When I tell them that I am a teacher, I get asked the obvious follow up question, “What subject?”. When I tell them that I teach mathematics, I usually get to hear pieces of feedback about my subject and profession. The first tends to be something like, “I didn’t really enjoy mathematics at school and I am not very good at it.” And this might be followed by, “I think it was my teacher, I didn’t like them and they weren’t very good.” I find it strange that sometime adults are almost proud to tell a stranger that they struggle with mathematics and that it isn’t their fault! I am biased, but I think that mathematics is a beautiful and vital subject and therefore, in encounters like these, I will try and defend the subject and my profession. I suspect this is why I am rarely invited back to parties!

I am pleased to report that the conversations I have with pupils at Bablake about mathematics are very different from those I have outside school. In general, pupils are much more positive about the subject and when I get to teach further mathematics to the Sixth Form, it is one of the highlights of my week.

We frequently remind pupils about the importance of feedback to help us improve. This can be given in many ways, from a conversation with a teacher, to more formal marking of work. Feedback can be challenging because it highlights the areas that can be improved, but it is key to making progress. As adults, we probably find giving and receiving feedback harder than pupils. I try to ask how something can improve rather what they thought of it, as adults often give too generic feedback in order to not offend. When I see Shell pupils, I ask them how they think Bablake could be even better and they initially struggle, however when I remind them that we can’t be perfect and there are always things that can improve, I get some interesting ideas.

Following this theme, I would therefore be grateful if parents could complete the annual parental questionnaire. This really does inform our decision making and feeds into the school development plan. The link to this year’s questionnaire is https://forms.office.com/e/q5M9cmcw6d. It should only take a few minutes to complete and will close on February 3rd. Thank you for taking to the time to do this and I wish you all the best for the weekend ahead.

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 95 - Friday 19 January 2024)

#bablake #feedback

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The future of learning is …

At our INSET day on Monday, we spent time thinking about the recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the potential impact on education. AI has been around for years, but the release of large language models such as Chat GPT has rapidly increased our ability to create content. My understanding is that these models now contain all quality human content ever written and further advances this year will see the introduction of images, including videos, rather than words. There is obvious concern regarding the trust element of how genuine such information may be, as deep fake videos proliferate; indeed, some people think that deep fakes may already have swung an election in Slovakia.

AI already makes humans more efficient and this will only increase this year. Monday’s guest speaker, Dr Andy Kemp, drew parallels between the use of calculators in mathematics and the impact upon the curriculum. Although AI is more general than calculators, I found this to be a useful analogy, not least because, as a mathematics teacher, I can see the difference calculators have made in the classroom. They make us more efficient, allow us to go further, to move on to more complicated mathematics without spending hours on long calculations. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need to do basic arithmetic – we do - because it not only allows us to check for mistakes, but also increases our understanding of the key building blocks of the subject. In many ways, mathematics classrooms look very similar to how they did 50 years ago, but we have learnt how to use calculators to allow us to go further, to do harder sums. In the same way, with the advances of AI, students in the humanities and arts will have the ability to produce an essay with minimal input; this may be considered to be disruptive, but it will also allow us to go further.

Making predictions for the future is fraught with danger, but I suspect that over the next 12 to 24 months, we will see advances in how these large language models are used to make us more efficient, for example, in helping pupils to learn and make progress. We know that testing is an important part of learning, but this is most effective if you get immediate and precise feedback. As a pupil, you want to spend most of your time on the ‘hard’ part – the testing – rather than creating questions or flashcards. AI can already do most of this and I am confident that there will soon be a proliferation of products that have taken the generic models such as Chat GPT and used to them to create something specific that directly helps our pupils learn, freeing up precious time to focus on more impactful activities.

There are clearly some challenges with formal assessment and, in the short term, I can see a move towards more examinations and less coursework, but it will be interesting to see how this develops. Dr Kemp made the case that in the future, it may be possible to have assessments based upon an interview (with a computer), just as a PhD student has a viva at the end of their studies.

Schools will adapt and I feel positive about some of the opportunities that will arise, but I don’t see the role of teachers and schools changing too much. We will continue to play a vital role in guiding pupils, while AI will provide invaluable support in tailoring learning experiences. Together, we can create a dynamic and enriching environment.

There are dangers and pitfalls, but we will continue to work with you and our pupils to navigate this digital transformation responsibly. By staying informed and engaged, we can ensure that AI is harnessed to empower and enhance the educational journey for all.

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 94 - Friday 12 January 2024)

#bablake #artificial intelligence #education #future

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Equality of Opportunity

In my final blog of 2023 I thought that I would share sections of a newspaper article written about the School in 1911, which was sent to me this week by the granddaughter of a former Bablake pupil. The article is titled “Recollections of the Old Bablake School” and was written by Mr Humberstone, who was the last Headmaster before the School moved from Old Bablake in Hill Street to our current site. In the article, he talks about the school uniform and how “it was often remarked upon, when youth and age were seen wending their way together through the quaint, narrow streets of the city to St Michael’s Church; the Bablake boys in their yellow lined tunics, blown aside by the wind, marking four-deep with military step and the thirty or so Bablake bedesmen in their long black cloaks with loose sleeves walking alongside.” The bedesmen were from the almshouse that was linked to the School and provided accommodation for pensioners who agreed to say prayers for the benefactor in exchange for a place to stay. I am not sure what our current pupils would make of a yellow uniform or the idea that Coventry had quaint, narrow streets!

As every Bablake pupil knows, or at least I think they do, in 1344 Queen Isabella gave land called 'Babbelak' to build St John’s Church. The guild church was supported by a college of priests living in quarters immediately behind the church. It seems that the ecclesiastical college took an educational aspect quite quickly, for in 1364 a 'Bablake School' is recorded on land given by Isabella's grandson, Edward, the Black Prince. The School remained in the original buildings until the move to our current site in 1890. For those of you who would like to know more of the history of Bablake, Mr Burden’s excellent book, “The Lion and the Stars” is available from the Parents’ Association.

On Wednesday, we will be back in the historic church of St John’s for our Carol Service and we are very glad that the link with the church continues to this day. There are still some (free) tickets available to join us for the service, which will start at 6.00pm. If you would like to attend, please obtain tickets here.

In Mr Humberstone’s article, he mentions that on Sundays, the boarders would have to stay inside the school buildings, “lest their noises in the yard should disturb worshippers in the church.” I am sure this must have tried the patience of many of them! He finishes the article saying that the purpose of a school like Bablake is to afford every pupil of “equality of opportunity.” This is something that is maintained today, through our ‘Spirit of Opportunity’ – our aim to provide opportunities via which pupils can achieve more than they imagined possible. While I am sure, if he were to return today, that Mr Humberstone would be surprised by much of what he may find, I suspect that he would also recognise much which is the same.

I look forward to seeing many of you at Wednesday’s Carol Service.

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 93 - Friday 8th December 2023)

#spiritofopportunity #bablake #community #opportunity #history

[bablake]

Making Mistakes

It is horrible when we get something wrong. Nobody likes it! It can feel very exposing, and it is perfectly natural to feel upset, embarrassed, or even ashamed. But, of course, we make mistakes all the time; they are a natural part of the learning process and while perfectionism can be an issue for some pupils, for many, they accept that making mistakes in their work is part of how we make progress. However, making a mistake in how we act is harder to accept and can feel more personal.

Hopefully none of us will ever make such drastic and public mistake as Jim Marshall. On October 25th, 1964, he was playing American football in San Francisco and his team, the Minnesota Vikings, was leading 27-17 in the fourth quarter. The game seemed in the bag, especially when the San Francisco 49ers gave away the ball in their own territory and Jim Marshall, a 6 foot 4 Vikings defensive player, recovered it. Marshall began to run and run... all on his own, towards his own end zone. Everyone knew what was happening except Marshall and the disbelieving commentator announced, “He is running the wrong way; he thinks he’s scored a touchdown!” On reaching his end zone in solitude, a pleased Marshall tossed the ball in nonchalant celebration. The referees awarded San Francisco two points and a 49er player rushed up, patted Marshall on the arm and said, “Thanks, Jim.”

How do you recover from a mistake as catastrophic and public as that? Very fortunately for Marshall, the Vikings held on in that game and won 27-22. Marshall boasted a successful 20-year career, made two Pro Bowls and was a key member of Minnesota’s Purple People Eaters’ defence that led the Vikings to several Super Bowl appearances in the 1970s. You can read more about his story at https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/worst-nfl-mistakes-gaffes-jim-marshall-minnesota-vikings

Mistakes are inevitable. They will always happen. Nobody is perfect. If you are doing something difficult or new, which happens more as we grow up and face new challenges, the likelihood of getting something wrong is much higher. So, the most important thing is not necessarily getting it right first time, but getting it right in the end. When a young person makes a mistake, it is tempting to place the spotlight of attention on the incident. Instead, try and encourage them to look at the conditions that led up to the event in question. Why did they act as they did? How can they avoid this in future? With young people, there are often other factors such as a lack of sleep, too much screen time, poor diet and lack of regular exercise that could be contributing to mistakes being made.

Having the confidence to accept that mistakes will happen and acknowledging that it is how we reflect, learn, and respond that is key to future success. We just need to ensure that we are facing the right way before we set off!

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 92 - Friday 1st December 2023)

#bablake #community #collaboration #confidence #respond

[bablake]

The Great Debate!

Last week, two of our Upper Sixth students, Avneet and Rhea, represented the School in ‘The Great Debate’, an event run by the Historical Association. They had to argue which place or person from their local area deserved further historical recognition and Avneet spoke about Lidice Place, while Rhea focussed on Maganbhai Patel - a South Asian photographer who migrated to Coventry. Both students did exceptionally well, with Avneet receiving a ‘highly commended’ and Rhea being named winner. Rhea now goes forward to represent Warwickshire in the next round.

I frequently talk to pupils about the need to be interested in the world around them and this is a perfect example of this. I therefore have included an edited version of Rhea’s speech below and we wish her all the best in the next stage of the competition. More information on Maganbhai, including some of his photographs, can be found at https://masterji.photography/

Unfamiliarity. Loneliness. Inhibition.

These are the feelings that confronted my South African-Indian mother when she first moved to the UK at age 29. She was met with the sudden dilemma of choosing where to settle in a country often known to be unwelcome to people like her.

This personal anecdote goes to serve the microcosm between my chosen historical figure and thousands of similar families in my local area across generations. This person is Maganbhai Patel, commonly referenced as Masterji. I wonder who has heard of him? Probably not many, but in my opinion, this should change.

Born in India, Patel arrived at the Liverpool docks in 1951. He was one of the 30,000 people a year that emigrated from the New Commonwealth in the 1950s and 1960s, according to Sheffield City Council’s old archives.

Masterji came to the UK pursuing his own ‘English Dream’. It wasn't long before his friends started to approach him for their photos so that they could send them back to their families in India. At first, he would take black and white photographs of single men who had come to Coventry. This would flourish into wedding and family photographs. In 1969, he opened the Master's Art Studio, taking photos of people from all walks of life: from a bus conductor to Parvanna, a Coventry-based South Asian band. His work is a unique first-hand account of Coventry’s diversity.

I spoke with Tarla Patel, daughter of Maganbhai, who followed in her father’s footsteps to become a contemporary artist. She said, “our stories have been told through news and media by people who were unaware and uneducated to the immigrant experience. Narratives of colour have been constantly only associated with trauma and negativity. Showing these images of people from the postwar era through the decades by an Asian photographer of a similar background gives perhaps a truer picture of new migrants through their transition to a citizen”. They are the changing faces of people owning the space they lived in.

A perfect example of this would be the importance of South-Asian immigrants to business in Coventry. Post-World War II, more than 10,000 soldiers from surrounding areas had died. These immigrants joined the engineering and textiles workforce to rebuild society. Indeed, in his book ‘Revival of a City: Coventry in a Globalising World’, Jason Begley asserts that worldwide economic forces have served to make this settlement a more innovative and dynamic economy.

To conclude, I believe that Maganbhai Patel deserves to be recognised as a pioneer in Asian photography in Coventry. We are all reminded of the enduring power of visual storytelling, and through his lens, he captured the triumphs and the profound sense of community that immigration has brought to Britain.

I would like to end with a quote from his daughter, “I invite people to reflect on the changing identities of my father’s subjects and to contemplate the stories to be told and the lives to be lived. Through his work, we will remember not just the past, but also the endless possibilities of the future.”

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 91 - Friday 17th November 2023)

#community #bablake #collaboration #excellence #teamwork #possibilities #future

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Shaping a better world

Every Friday, I meet with Shell pupils who have a birthday that week; it is a good opportunity to get to know our younger pupils as they embark upon their educational journey at Bablake. It is also their opportunity to ask me any questions they choose about the school; some questions are more imaginative and challenging than others and pupils generally understand what is appropriate! Although, recently, having noticed the Aston Villa picture on my wall, one of them rather bravely said, “I’m not sure I want to talk to you anymore.”!

We often discuss how we could further develop our curriculum, while still covering the key topics required for GCSEs and A levels. Staff and pupils often talk about increasing opportunities to develop skills such as creativity, problem-solving, taking initiative, communication, teamwork, innovation, collaboration, adaptability, resilience and leadership. There are already many ways in which these are developed both within our curriculum and through our co-curricular programme; however, this year we are deliberately increasing the role of Enterprise Education at Bablake. For example, the Business and Economics Department is giving Shell pupils the chance to take part in the ‘Tenner Challenge’ where pupils research, create, plan and run their own business starting with just £10. This ultimately links to the Young Enterprise programme in the Sixth Form, where one of our teams – Everlasting – won the County Finals.

On Tuesday, working with industry experts, Year 8 pupils looked at the different sectors that use JCBs and they then designed a new machine for the company. Pupils identified the problem that their machine would fix and considered how their machine would support sustainability, before creating a marketing strategy to launch it to customers and clients. The winning team will go forward to represent the School at the national finals.

I was able to observe part of the day and was very impressed by their ideas and, even more so, by the skills they were using and developing. While we don’t know what the world will look like when they leave school, we can be confident that these skills and attributes will be vital for success. I am constantly impressed by our pupils, as were the facilitators who led the Enterprise Day, and the way that they interact with others. I am sure that whatever the future holds, Bablake pupils will continue to lead full and responsible lives and shape a better world.

Andrew Wright, Headmaster

(Bulletin No 91 - Friday 17th November 2023)

#bablake #enterprise #winners #community #creativity #excellence #teamwork

[bablake]

Armistice and Remembrance

We were joined at our Remembrance Service this morning by Air Commodore Mark Ashwell. Mark was a senior officer in the RAF and today’s blog comprises an edited version of his address.

“Armistice and Remembrance. Words no doubt you will have heard much of in recent discussions on television, the radio and in social media. But what do the words actually mean?

Well the broad definition of Armistice is the formal agreement by troops on both sides in a conflict to stop fighting. A truce or ceasefire is required to enable the agreement of an Armistice and I am sure that you will agree that this is particularly poignant at this time considering current events in Palestine, Israel and Ukraine.

Tomorrow, the 11th of November, is Armistice Day on which the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month marks the time in 1918 when France, Britain and Germany agreed to formally stop the fighting of World War 1. The time is marked by a two-minute silence when we reflect and indeed remember all of those who have fallen in battle or who are affected by war.

The poppy is evocative, as it recalls the thousands of such plants that grew in the disturbed and bloodied grounds of the World War 1 battlefields. This symbology is beautifully portrayed in John McCrae’s poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’, with the opening line:

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row”

I saw many poppies myself when I served with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, dealing with the undoubtedly darker side of the plant which is the source of opium. However, based at Camp Eggars in Kabul, I met a US Special Forces Office Captain called Michael Murphy.  Murph was the leader of an ill-fated team sent on a counter insurgency mission in Afghanistan. His team was attacked by the Taliban and Murph scaled a high, stony, open plateau to use special communications equipment to call in a rescue for his men below. It was on that plateau that this courageous and selfless young officer was shot down and killed. You may know Murph through the novel or film ‘Lone Survivor’, if not, you may wish to read or watch. So, at this time I remember folks like Michael, along with good friends and comrades lost in conflicts I experienced in the Falkland Islands, Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan.

All of these people were courageous and selfless. They enjoyed serving in the armed forces but at their core they were committed to keeping friends, family and country safe, secure and free from harm. Most importantly, they gave their lives to ensure that we can continue to enjoy core freedoms such as education for all, free speech and the right to self-determination. Freedoms we can sometimes easily forget.

So, on this Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday, I hope that my thoughts here might encourage you to reflect on all who have served their country with passion, courage and pride. Most importantly, remember the freedoms you have and use them diligently.”

#bablake #remembrance #armistice