King Edward VI Five Ways

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King Edward VI Five Ways
Motto	Dieu et mon droit (God and my right.)
Established	1883
Type	Grammar voluntary aided school
Headteacher	David J. Wheeldon
Founder	King Edward VI
Specialism	Humanities College Science College (from April 2008)
Location	Scotland Lane Bartley Green Birmingham West Midlands B32 4BT  England
LEA	Birmingham
Ofsted number	103552
Staff	100 (approx.)
Students	1,140
Gender	Co-educational
Ages	11 to 18
Houses	Barker      Dobinson      MacCarthy      Roach
School colours	Black & white
Website	www.ke5ways.bham.sch.uk
Coordinates: 52°25′50″N 2°00′05″W / 52.43058, -2.00143

King Edward VI Five Ways (KEFW) (grid reference SP000814) is a selective, humanities-specialist grammar school located in the Bartley Green area of south Birmingham, England. From April 2008, the school will earn its second specialism, and become a specialist Science College. ^[1] It was tenth in the school league tables in 2007 ^[2] Currently the school has around 1,150 pupils in attendance, and over 100 staff including the current headmaster D. J. Wheeldon, a former teacher at the school. The school is unique amongst the King Edward VI Foundation, in that it is the only one of the schools to be fully co-educational. The school scored "outstanding" in every category with Ofsted report in November 2005. ^{[3] [4]} The school is Voluntary Aided, and parents pay no fees to the day-to-day running of the school. ^[5]

Contents 1 History 2 Entry 3 Academic Stature 3.1 Subjects Offered 3.2 2007 Results 4 Extracurricular activities 4.1 Sporting 4.1.1 Athletics 4.1.2 Cricket 4.1.3 Rugby Union 4.2 Non-Sporting 4.2.1 Debating 4.2.2 Drama 4.2.2.1 Foundation Drama Competition 4.2.3 Chess 4.2.4 Music 5 House system 5.1 History 5.2 Attaining points 5.3 Recent revival and house events day 5.4 Results 6 Features 6.1 School Council 6.2 Facilities 6.3 School song 6.4 Staff vs. 1st team cricket match 6.5 Bus Service 7 International links 7.1 The Babati link group 7.2 The English School 7.3 King Edward Public School 7.4 Christchurch Boys' School 7.5 United States' Links 7.6 St Just School 7.7 Afri-Twin Link 7.8 Brekkuskoli School 8 Old Edwardians 9 External links 10 References and notes

[edit] History

Main article: Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI

Established in 1883 as part of the King Edward VI Foundation, ^{[6] [7]} the school's original site was at the Edgbaston Propietary School, in Five Ways, an area of Birmingham just south of the city centre. The school opened for the first time on January 16, 1883. The original Headmaster was E.H.F. MacCarthy, who remained at his post until retirement in 1916. Originally, school ended at 16, and the only way to go to Oxbridge was to go to the main King Edward's School, at the time in New Street. However, MacCarthy's successor, Mr Barker, introduced the idea of the Sixth Form as a way to get straight from Five Ways to university.

During the Second World War, the Headmaster at the time, Mr Dobinson, decided to evacuate the school to Monmouth. This meant that all of the staff and pupils moved to share accommodation in the town, and could only keep in contact with family via correspondence. Mr Dobinson was the only person from the school to frequent Birmingham at all during the war.

After the war, the school was beginning to get overcrowded as expansion began to take its toll. Due to Birmingham's expansion around the school, there was no longer the opportunity to build on the current grounds, so a new site was found. On April 23, 1958 the school opened at its current home in Bartley Green, a suburb on the extreme southwest of the city of Birmingham. The new school was located on the site of the old Bartley Farm, right next to Bartley Reservoir, which had been purchased by the Foundation. The relocation was not universally popular. The School Debating Society passed a motion regretting the move. Staff were concerned about the effect the relocation would have on the intake of the school. The corridors were considered too narrow, and whilst the playing fields were vast, the school buildings themselves were not much improved on those found at the original Five Ways.

The time since 1958 has seen the development of much improved facilities, however. Buildings not originally at the Bartley site include the Eyles and Chowen Centres, the former and current home of the school's Sixth Form. A music block and technology block have been added, as well as a Sports Hall and the MacCarthy Block. There has also been the expansion of the Science Wing, and increased seating capacity in the hall with an annex.

Five Ways introduced girls in the years following 1988, firstly in the Sixth Form, and then into the main school ten years later. Today, Five Ways is the largest co-educational state grammar school in the West Midlands, and one of the top five co-ed grammar schools nationally. ^[8]

[edit] Entry

Pupils must pass an Eleven Plus entrance exam to get into the school. The King Edward VI Foundation holds its exams at the same time, and generally a candidate will sit one exam for multiple schools within the foundation. 150 are selected from each year, from more than 1,000 candidates. A pupil has the opportunity to list the Foundation schools that he or she prefers, and depending on the results, will get allocated into one of the schools.

[edit] Academic Stature

[edit] Subjects Offered

At GCSE, students are obliged to choose at least one humanities subject (options include History, Geography and Geology), at least one foreign language (options include French, German, Latin and Spanish), and other traditional subjects such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, English, English Literature. Pupils must also complete at least a short course in Religious Studies, and ICT. There are other options available, such as Geology, which has run as an after school voluntary course, ran over two years, and held a year early. Other options include Music, Art, Expressive Arts, Performing Arts, Design Technology, and short courses in PE and Citizenship. The requirements to stay in the school for A Levels are 5 B grades, but with A grades in the subjects that you opt to take at A Level.

Four subjects are picked at AS Level. Options exclusive to A Level studies are Economics, Government & Politics, Media Studies, Classical Civilisation, Sport Studies, Psychology and Philosophy. There is also a Further Maths option, which enables a candidate to take two A Levels in Mathematics over the two years. There is the option to "drop" a subject at A2 Level, and if the student wishes, pick up an AS in another subject. The second year of Sixth Form also contains a course in General Studies. ^[9]

[edit] 2007 Results

At GCSE, 100% of candidates achieved at least 5 A*-C grades, and 96% of all entries were between A*-C. 62.5% were in the A*-A range. The school excelled in English Literature and Religious Studies. In English Literature, the top 5 entries nationally (AQA) were all from Five Ways, and in Religious Studies, only 1 candidate failed to score an A or A* in both the short and full courses. 4 candidates had 100% A* results. ^[10] At A Level, there was a 100% pass rate, with 5 candidates achieving 5 A grades, and a total of 39 candidates achieving 3 or more A grades. ^[11]

[edit] Extracurricular activities

[edit] Sporting

[edit] Athletics

The school has an athletics team, that has produced several notable athletes. One former student, Tom Parsons, who went on to compete in the Commonwealth Games for England. ^[12] In 2007, Parsons finished tenth in the high-jump at the 2007 World Athletics Championship, in Osaka, Japan. ^[13]

[edit] Cricket

Cricket is considered to be the traditional Summer term sport within Five Ways. Teams of all age groups compete regularly, attaining frequent notable achievements: for example, the year 11 teams in 2005 and 2006 won the Docker Shield, the oldest school cricket competition in the world. ^[14]

[edit] Rugby Union

Rugby Union is Five Ways' traditional Winter sport. Five Ways regularly enters the Daily Mail Cup, with mixed success. In 2006/2007, the Under 15 Team advanced to Round 6 (the last 16) ^[15] before going out after a home draw 7-7 to Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School. In 2005 and 2006, there was a tour to Biarritz, in France. ^[16]

[edit] Non-Sporting

[edit] Debating

In 2006, Richard Robinson and Tim Swann competed in the grand final of the Midlands School Debating Competition, one of four teams to make it thus far out of over 100 schools competing, and after three qualifying round. They argued for the motion "This house believes in God", but in the end were pipped to the post by Cheltenham Ladies College and King Edwards School, to pick up a respectable third place overall.

Other debating successes this year include breaking to the finals in the Oxford Schools Competition, and reaching the finals of the Cambridge Schools Competition, two hitherto unprecedented triumphs for Five Ways. ^[12]

Five Ways also had success in the "Debating Matters" competition in 2007, reaching the final 4 schools in the country.

In 2007, Sixth Form students Benjamin Mulvihill, Richard Robinson and Anna Fox took part in the Great Shakespeare Debate at Stratford-Upon-Avon. They managed to win the competition, defeating North London Collegiate School in the final ^[12]. In 2008, the school managed to repeat the success once more, emerging triumphant over North London Collegiate School in the final again. ^[12]

[edit] Drama

Recently, there have been many drama productions, including The Canterbury Tales (as a full school production) by Geoffrey Chaucer and The Tempest by William Shakespeare in 2005, which was entered into the BBC Shakespeare competition. Also, at Christmas last year, was the upper school production of Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer. In 2006 Bugsy Malone by Alan Parker and The Agamemnon were produced; an all female cast of Macbeth, which along with The Merchant of Venice, were entered into the BBC Schools Shakespeare Festival. ^{[17] [12]} The lower school (KS3) has also performed two plays: Tom Sawyer and Ernie's Incredible Illucinations.

For the 2007/08 academic year, a whole school production of Grease the musical is taking place. Other productions include a 'multi-cultural' Dracula, which has received much attention in the West Midlands press,^[18][19][20] an upper-school production of Dinner and Much Ado About Nothing for the Shakespeare Youth Festival.

[edit] Foundation Drama Competition

The FDC has been running for two years now, with the other schools of the King Edward VI Foundation competing. In 2006 it was won by King Edward VI Five Ways, as was the Stage Craft award, the best KS3 actress award, and the best KS3 overall award.^[12]

[edit] Chess

Five Ways takes part in the Birmingham & District Junior Chess League. ^[21] It has competed with much success in recent years, and in 2006/2007 finished second in each division it entered, as well as winning the First Form and Lightning Tournaments. ^[22] A number of Five Ways players have ECF grades, ^[23] due to participating in outside competitions. The school regularly participates in the UK Chess Challenge, and in 2007, two of their players reached the final stage of the competition. ^[24]

[edit] Music

The school offers extra-curricular music in the form of concerts and Carol evenings. The orchestra is split into many sections, including regular rehearsals of two full Orchestras, a Wind Band, Baroque Strings, and two Choirs. ^[25] There are also smaller ensembles such as Brass Group, Cello Group and Flute Choir. Newman College is also used for some performances.

[edit] House system

The system operates by allocating each student into one of four houses upon their entry into the school. Throughout the academic year, each student is then expected to attain as many house points as possible, so increasing their house's chance of winning the end of year House Championship.

[edit] History

The House System was originally introduced by Mr Barker. He appointed four House Masters, and these would forever hold the names of the houses. However, in 1970, the system was scrapped, due to dwindling interest in the system. ^[26] Some time before 1996 the school reinstated the system, but this time, the new houses were named after the first four Headmasters of the school, MacCarthy (yellow), Barker (red), Dobinson (blue) and Roach (green).

[edit] Attaining points

Traditionally, the vast majority of house points were attained by being awarded house merit points, for good contributions in class, impressive performances on homework, and other minor achievements. Until recently, the only other way to score house points was on sports day.^{[citation needed]}

However, the recent revival in the house system has brought with it a wide variety of both sporting and non-sporting events, throughout the whole year, which involve the participation of every age group in the school. Varied in nature, these include house cross-country, sudoku and cookery. House points are now awarded to the house with the highest amount of merit points in each year, with 2nd 3rd and 4th place houses getting less points.

[edit] Recent revival and house events day

This new pro-house initiative was unofficially launched in the Summer term 2006^{[citation needed]}, by a house events day for years 7 and 8. Almost entirely organised and executed by prefects in the then Lower Sixth, the event was unanimously heralded an all round success, and is a yearly feature.^{[citation needed]}

The most popular event in the new House System, is the tug-o-war.^{[citation needed]} It is quite custom for the whole sports hall to be filled with passionate spectators, cheering on those involved. The event concludes with a staff house tug-o-war, as well as a Student-Staff match to round off the event.

[edit] Results

Current totals are announced weekly, during Friday morning assemblies.

Yearly totals are announced in the final assembly of the year. The 2006-2007 academic year standings were:

1. Barker
2. Dobinson
3. Roach
4. MacCarthy

[edit] Features

[edit] School Council

The Council comprises an elected representative from every form in the school: just short of 50. For the 2006/07 school year, a new constitution was publicly launched ^[27] , and was unanimously ratified by the Council on its inaugural meeting. The Constitution was designed to improve the speed of decisions, and increase the power of individual school representatives.

The School Council aims to bring about the changes in the school that its pupils wish to see. Some notable achievements include:

• Clocks in each classroom
• Benches on the playground
• Basketball Hoops on the playground
• Water fountains
• Toilet refurbishment, and the appointment of a full time cleaner
• Football facilities
• Plasma TVs in the canteen and Sixth form common room
• Changes to food pricing
• Construction of new changing rooms^[12]

The 2006/7 school year has also seen the Council make a conscious effort to be more known throughout the school, through a variety of methods including sponsoring showings of various films, posters around the school, and running charity events such as the Five Ways interpretation of World AIDS Day.

The School Council has gone from strength to strength, pursuing its perpetual aim of improving the student experience.

The Sixth Form Council was a precursor to the School Council and achieved notoriety when in 2003 it reported the school to the Health and Safety Executive over fire safety failings. The HSE sided with the students and mandated the school to improve the alarm system and replace fire doors.

[edit] Facilities

The school has extensive grounds and facilities. Situated on a large 30 acre site, there are many outdoor sports pitches for a variety of sports including (amongst others) Rugby, Cricket, Hockey, Rounders, football, Athletics and Netball. Almost all indoor sports are catered for, including Swimming and the Tyn-Y-Waen Climbing Wall – which was opened by climber Ben Moon in June 2005. The school has buildings, known as “blocks” for subject groups, and a separate humanities building (which currently also houses the Sixth form centre). There are a number of dedicated computer rooms, a staffed library, a Connexions career room, and most classrooms are now equipped with Interactive whiteboards.

A recent acquisition by the school has been a mobile fieldwork unit for use by the Humanities Departments.

[edit] School song

Several decades ago, Five Ways acquired its own traditional school song. It had fallen out of use, but it was modernised and reinstated as an important, albeit infrequently seen, part of the school.^{[citation needed]} Whilst the traditional version used to be sung, this is not the version now sung. The modern version has several words substituted for more appropriate alternatives: for example "boys" is no longer a part of the song in view of the school's now co-educational status. It is sung on Speech Day, and at the end of term assemblies.

[edit] Staff vs. 1st team cricket match

After the exams in July, there is a Staff v 1st Team cricket match. The staff are christened the "Staff Cavaliers". The match is a timed one-day cricket match, with no specific number of overs allotted per team. This allows all three results possible. The staff are bolstered by the presence of an ex-first class player. By arrangement, the Staff always bat first.

In the 2003 match, Mr Shephard was controversially stumped off a wide ball. When Shephard over balanced while playing a cut stroke Tom Jeffries attempted to stump him but missed the wicket with his hands. Jeffries then broke the bails by treading on the stumps and Shephard was denied his traditional century.

In 2007, the match was played on a sodden pitch after preceding bad weather. The students won for the second time in 14 years, after chasing the 68 they were set for victory in the final over of the match.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Bus Service

The school has a series of buses, designed to transport its students to and from school. They are put on specially by The Green Bus, and in 2007/08, there were 7 of these services. ^[28] Public buses are also available for pupils before and after school. ^[28]

[edit] International links

School	City
Babati Day Secondary School [29]	Babati
The English School [30]	Guangzhou
King Edward Public School [31]	Mahilpur
Christchurch Boy’s High School [32]	Christchurch
Afri-Twin Link [33]	Cape Town
St Just School [34]	Lyon
EDGE partnership link with group of schools in Chicago [35]	Chicago
Brekkuskoli School [36]	Akureyri

The school has enjoyed its many international links worldwide, which have brought a wide range of opportunities, development, exchanges and experiences - social, charitable, curricular and developmental – to its pupils and staff.

These Links enabled Five Ways to win the DfES Full School Award, celebrating Internationalism and it was described as "a major honour for excellence in this field." ^[37]

[edit] The Babati link group

The Babati Link Group formed from within the school in 2003 exists to promote friendship and share educational resources with their Tanzanian friends at Babati Day School in the rurally remote town of Babati, Manyara.

Mr Wilson initiated this link after visiting Babati in 2002. The school has now raised several thousand pounds altogether to support Babati Day, all pupils taking part in fund raising. A trust fund has been set up and the money has been used for classroom renovation projects, air fares for Babati teachers to visit Britain, the cost of supporting an e-mail link between the schools, and so on.

A party of 45 students and teachers visited Babati in 2003, and carried out a classroom renovation. The Headmaster and a teacher colleague visited Birmingham in 2003-4, learning about teaching, management and leadership, as a result of which the school has developed a school improvement strategy.

One of the schools' World Challenge parties passed through Babati and helped build its first sports facility, a basketball court.

A second group of students and teachers travelled to Babati in July 2005. This group carried out renovations and also focused on teaching English as a foreign language. All students involved on the trip took Swahili lessons to facilitate this. Staff involved developed curriculum projects in English, Science, R.E. and Modern languages as a result of the visit.

The most recent activity in this vibrant school link, came in Summer 2006 when a small group of students from the VI Form travelled to Babati to complete the most vibrant and ambitious phase of the link to date. This visit saw the construction of a brand new ICT facility for Babati Day. Pupils from KEFW were actively involved in both the delivery of an ICT infrastructure, and the inaugural ICT lessons at the school, Supported by the Babati Link Group, a roadmap for future development of this facility has been put in place.

[edit] The English School

Five Ways was approached by Pate’s in 2005. They have an established link with the school in Guangzhou, but struggle to accommodate the numbers of students from the partner school that wish to visit Britain. Therefore we have agreed to assist. Six students spent time in Birmingham in July 2005 and a party of six sixth formers and Deputy Head Mrs Long will visit China in October 2005.

E-mail links are being set up. The intention is to further develop this link and add depth to the contacts at students and teacher levels.

[edit] King Edward Public School

Following an approach by the Chairman of King Edward School, who is the father of an ex-pupil, The Headmaster, David Wheeldon, and Deputy Head, Richard Fox, made a preliminary visit to Mahilpur in February 2004. Since then a group of students from India visited Birmingham in July 2004, and spent time in classes with Year 7 students. A group of sixth formers and two members of staff returned to India in February 2005. They carried out various teaching and learning activities. The next stage is to embed the link with India into the curriculum. We also welcome another party from India in November 2005, this time including teachers who will study teaching and learning in British schools, as well as six Year 8 students.

[edit] Christchurch Boys' School

Links are being forged at the moment with Christchurch Boy’s High School in the South island of New Zealand.

[edit] United States' Links

The EDGE partnership is a thriving network of schools in south west Birmingham, working together on all aspects of education. A link has been established between this group and a similar network in Chicago. Currently, Five Ways' main partner school at the moment is Walter Payton College Preparatory High School which is a Math, Science and World Language High School. This is a CPD link aimed mainly at senior management at the moment. An exchange is currently taking place. The intention is to broaden this link to encompass teachers at all levels.

The school is also in the process of establishing a video conference link with Walter Payton High School in Chicago.

[edit] St Just School

A new link has been established by the French department with St Just School in Lyon.

The partnership school is a mixed comprehensive and very highly regarded school right in the centre of Lyon. This is an ideal exchange/link as Lyon is the twin town of Birmingham, while KEFW and Lycée St Just offer very similar characteristics.

[edit] Afri-Twin Link

The link involves a number of British schools in a triangular relationship, each with two South African schools; one private school and one township school. After some initial problems the link is now becoming established under Mr Webster’s guidance.

The intention is that once initial contacts have been established, students will begin to communicate at a more advanced level, sharing ideas on study projects and using their contacts to inform work in various subjects. As well as this, it is planned to establish a video conference link.

Teachers will have the opportunity to share ideas on teaching and learning, and teacher visits between the schools for CPD purposes are envisaged soon.

It is hoped also to arrange a sports tour to South Africa, taking in the two partner schools.

[edit] Brekkuskoli School

The link with Brekkuskoli was established in October 2006 when Mr Isgrove, Mr Bird and Mr Dear visited Akureyri whilst on the Circum Iceland trip during half term. They met with a number of staff, including the Headmaster, to discuss future plans and had a tour of the school which is relatively new in that it is the result of an amalgamation of two of the oldest schools in the town.

Future plans include Video Conferencing and Teacher/Student visits.

[edit] Old Edwardians

Notable ex Five Ways pupils include:^{[citation needed]}

• Kate Ashfield - Actress ^[38]
• Kieth Fielding - International Rugby Union and Rugby League Player ^[39]
• Tom Parsons - International Sportsman ^[40]
• Ben McCarthy - BBC Journalist
• Ben Wright - BBC Political Correspondent
• David Cannadine - Historian
• Michael Checkland - Former Director General of the BBC
• Tom Butler - Bishop of Southwark
• Charles Manson - Religious leader
• David Parsons - England Cricket Coach
• Paul Ready - Actor
• Mazher Mahmood - The "Fake Sheikh" Journalist
• Simon Brew - Editor of Micro Mart magazine
• Alex Smith - Won "The Wolfram 2,3 Turing Machine Research Prize" ^{[41] [42]}
• Mark Newman - BBC WM Producer
• Charles Hare - Tennis player - Represented Great Britain in the 1937 Davis Cup.

[edit] External links

• School Official site
• Schools of King Edward VI (Admissions)
• Babati Link Group website
• Birmingham & District Junior Chess League Website
• Media Department Website
• Five Ways Chess Website
• School Council Website
• Green Bus Website

[edit] References and notes