National Student Apprentice Challenge – Charles Oxley (BGS 2000-2011)
We entered the National Student apprentice, where university's from around the company could apply and then 40 were chosen to go to the semi-finals, which took part in Birmingham where out of 40 other university's including Cambridge, Imperial etc, we managed to finish second and progress to the final.
This took place in London, on the weekend of 26th to 28th April in Canary Wharf at the Trinity Mirror Headquarters on the 22nd floor, where from Friday to Sunday we took part in several tasks, such as making adverts, having a midnight task on the Saturday night which led to us staying up all night to create a new idea for an old hotel. Overall we won the competition by 3 points.
India Report
Megan Kinsey (BGS 2002-2007)
This summer I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to participate in UNICEF India’s Knowledge Community on Children in India (KCCI) Internship. Out of over seven hundred applicants, 44 were selected – 22 from India and 22 from countries across the world. I am currently a student at the University of St Andrews, and after I graduate I intend to pursue a career in education in international development, so the internship gave me a lot of relevant experience that I can draw on in the future. I am grateful to the support that I received from the London OBA in contributing to the funding of this internship.
I was put in a team with three Indian interns, and together we were stationed in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, to write a report on a public grievance redressal mechanism that is being implemented in a town called Guna. The mechanism, called Janshruti, is unique in Madhya Pradesh, as it means that villagers do not have to travel huge distances to have their voices heard. It works to make government services and programmes accountable to the rural communities, and also makes officials at higher levels accessible to the at a grassroots level. Without Janshruti, villagers would have to travel distances of up to 100 km to raise their issues, if they could afford to do so. Many of the villagers that I met when conducting the research had never even left their own village, let alone travelled such long distances. UNICEF India wanted our group to document Janshruti so that it could be used as an example of a 'good practice', with the hopes of it being implemented elsewhere. My team also had to suggest solutions for any problems that we encountered in Janshruti.
I lived and worked at the Indian Institute of Forest Management, in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and had the support of supervisors both from the university and the UNICEF state office. We conducted two periods of fieldwork in the villages of Guna, where we interviewed households and government officials involved in Janshruti. My experiences in these villages were very powerful and emotional. We heard many stories of villagers having to walk 13 km just for water. I found it particularly challenging as being the only foreigner present, many villagers assumed that I had power and authority to really help them then and there; I found it really difficult to explain my status.
The whole experience was very rewarding, as I was constantly learning new things in everything I did. I found it really interesting to learn how governance works in such a large country as India, and this was the first time that I have conducted extensive research. I have come away from this experience with my drive and motivation renewed, and hope that in the future I can return to these villages in a position to provide significant and sustained support to the villagers. Finally, the report that my team and I wrote on Janshruti has been selected for publication with UNICEF, and will be available to international audiences.
Robert Townsend (BGS 1992-2002)
The Homecoming Parade of the Yorkshire Regiment's 3rd Battalion (The Duke of Wellington's) was held on Tuesday 4th December 2012 in Halifax. One of the standard bearers in the Colour Party was no other than Captain Rob Townsend, an Old Bradfordian. He looked absolutely spectacular in his uniform which complemented the magnificent standards of 'the Dukes'.
Words & picture supplied by Stephen Davidson (The High Sheriff of West Yorkshire)
Adrian Cragg (BGS 1965-1974)
Adrian came into school to visit on Monday 19th November. After leaving BGS Adrian trained for a career in public social housing, working first in London, where he met his wife Alison; then back to Yorkshire working for a Housing Association based in Selby, where his two girls were born. A career change into financial services followed, providing financial advice across the Yorkshire region. The call to the ordained Anglican ministry developed after twenty years in secular employment, serving in the Diocese of York until his recent move to the parish of Wyke in Bradford.
Deborah Sides (2004-2006)
I attended BGS between 2004-2006 and whilst I was there, I got my first taste of biomechanics doing PE A-Level under the watchful eye of Jed Boardman. From this I went on to gain a 1st class degree from the University of Bath in Sport and Exercise Science, and am now studying for a PhD at the University of Salford alongside working as a Biomechanist for the UK Athletics team.
As a Biomechanist, I analyse technique across all track and field disciplines, using high-speed cameras, laser measurement devices and force plates. The year 2012 was a fantastic opportunity to be involved in the fine-tuning of athlete’s technique as the Olympic Games drew closer.
In the lead up to the Games I was involved with the improvement of Jessica Ennis’ weaker heptathlon events of javelin and long jump, and worked closely with Greg Rutherford in his change of his takeoff technique for the long jump. Then during the Games I was based in Team GB house and acted as a performance analyst across all sports (including triathlon!).
It was fantastic to achieve my goal of working at an Olympic Games, and even more rewarding to watch the athletes I have worked alongside go on and become Olympic Champions.
Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards
On the 14th November, four Old Bradfordians were presented with their Gold Awards by the Duke of Edinburgh in the Throne Room of St James's Palace.
From left to right Nathan Chalk (at Nottingham University reading Law), Lottie Driver (at Birmingham reading Languages, Aiysha Puri (at Imperial College studying Medicine) and Jamie Davidson (who is spending his year in Industry with Syngenta before reading Chemical Engineering at Cambridge).
Appreciation: Bruno Wollheim’s Film : DAVID HOCKNEY, A BIGGER PICTURE
Most people who went to Bradford Grammar School would normally only remember their class mates.
But there are many hundreds of people who can rightly claim to know David Hockney because they all went to that school at the same time he was there. I was one of them, the same age, but in a different class. Our claim is real because we all tuned in to him. (My perspective is slightly more acute than most, because I too have had a lifelong career as artist and teacher). We remember speech day when he received his art prize every year, his affirmation of the obvious charisma and talent already visible in his work in the art room and in the scraperboard illustrations he published each term in the school magazine.
What a pleasure it is for us to have Bruno Wollheim’s film, which completes the great circle of time since then, and provides the proof of the pudding, of which we had all been given a glimpse of the recipe. David is our artist and he is back here on our patch.
Nowadays, David Hockney is not just Yorkshire’s artist, but that of the nation. Like the shaman who makes visible the dreams of the tribe by means of the magical practice of his gifts, so, here we have the master, seeing feeling and recording on our behalf the spectacle and magnificence of our landscape and our universe. We think we know it, but David gives us so much more that we have not noticed. It is all there in the film.
David is out there doing the work, day in day out; being the artist, painting what he sees. Not content to just drift on into his twilight years doing the same, this guy dreams up the monumental challenge of filling the biggest wall at the Royal Academy with a picture of one of those great stands of beech trees we remember driving past on journeys across the Wolds towards the East Coast.
Not only does he pull it off, with the use of many state of the art technical aids, but he welcomes Bruno Wollheim to shadow the project for over three years with his camera and microphone. Through all weathers, they gathered a harvest, day by day, of David’s pictures, of the fields, hills lanes trees and hedge rows, skies and light, accumulating the knowledge that would be applied when it came to the “big one”. All the time the film takes us up close. We are within the range between the artist and his outstretched arm to the canvas. We feel the uncertainty of the search, the hesitation, the challenge of changing light as the day progresses. We are protected from the lash of the rain, the numbing of fingers in the cold. But we are there.
Not long ago, the only access we had to an artist was through the pages of large Thames and Hudson editions, with their still reproductions. Now we have the animation of video, with its recording of “the moving eye” by the moving lens. I find it interesting to be conscious that there are three layers in this “film” of reality; the eyes of the painter, then, through the lens, that of the film maker, and finally our own watching them both. Each of us colours what is there to be seen.
This DVD is a comprehensive package. The “main attraction” covers the build up and the final project. Along the way David offers potent insights and gems of wisdom about art, and life and being alive, and even what might come next.
Of the four short films included in the package I very much liked “The Making of the Documentary”, showing the relationship of the film maker and his subject, the person and environment. I was able to gather from it and the other shorts, David's uniqueness and private focus and dedication. In that sense, he is somewhere else, on a different plane. I most appreciate his zen like humility and down to earth genuineness that this cameraman makes visible.The inclusion of the film maker’s part in the relationship is important to bring the whole of our experience of film maker and artist into a unity. The satisfaction it gives may possibly have something to do with the current understanding that the experimenter/ observer is to be recognised as an integral part of the enquiry. That is what creates the bigger picture : Bruno’s, and thereby, ours.
Buy this DVD. You will want to watch it again and again.
David Seeger (1946-1955)
Linkedin - Bradford Grammar School
OBs are constantly finding new and improved ways of staying in touch. As a result, the OBA has embraced the digital revolution and now has its own LinkedIn group page. LinkedIn is a rapidly-growing professional network, and the OBA page http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3495198&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr currently has around 270 members. The network can be used for business, for networking, for assistance in career development, for skills acquisition or simply to facilitate the re-establishment of contact. These opportunities will become increasingly valuable, especially for recent leavers. LinkedIn is free to join, and the more that join, the more powerful and rewarding our network will become!
London 2012 - How Alistair and Jonny Brownlee Took on the World
Please click on the link below to view the weekly olympicthursday series by BBC chief sports writer Tom Fordyce speaking to triathlon brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18247695
Opening of the Classics Lending Library
In the first week of the Summer Term, a new Classics Lending Library was opened in room 27. This project was made possible by a generous legacy to the Classics Department by Kenneth Pollard (OB 1936-39), and the Library was opened by his daughter Mrs Louise Lee.
Also present for the opening were the current Headmaster Mr Kevin Riley, the previous Headmaster Mr Stephen Davidson, Mr Richard Lee, all the Classics teaching staff and representatives from the Classics Society.
Mrs Lee said a few words to mark the occasion, recalling her father’s time at BGS, and his enthusiasm for Latin, Greek and cross-country running. She had chosen a Latin inscription for the top of the handsome oak bookcase – Dominus providebit – “The Lord will provide”, because she felt it summed up his lifelong trust in God to provide in every avenue of life and direction.
The purpose of this library is to make books and films about the Classical World readily available to pupils. Members of the Classics Society from the 1st year and 6th form marked the occasion by being the first to sign out books from the library.
M J Chapman
Frederick Delius: 150th Anniversary
It is the 150th anniversary of the birth of a notable Old Bradfordian whose name is commemorated at school in the Delius Room and Delius Corridor.
Pleaseclick here to read further.