Summer Term 2014— edition 170 — Page 1 Black Country Games

Summer Term 2014— edition 170 — Page 1
Black Country Games success
On Friday 27th a Shire Oak team of Year 8 boys travelled to Wolverhampton University to represent the academy
and the borough in the Black Country games. This involves the boroughs of Walsall, Dudley, Wolverhampton and
Sandwell. Three schools were selected from each borough, based on their respective athletics successes at the
championships held earlier in the year. Shire Oak, Pool Hayes & Queen Mary’s were invited from Walsall and, in
total, 12 of the best schools from the Black Country competed. Following some serious training and a very tough
selection process 8 of our best were eventually chosen to represent the academy: Liam McDermott, Joe Birch, Sam
Hayton-Wilcox, Jack Edge, Jack Hale, Jayson Hicken, Sam Lynex and Joel Morris.
The Shire Oak lads put in some tremendous performances and absolutely dominated those events where training
can make such a big difference such as javelin, shot putt and the relay. Our lads also did well on the tactical races
such as the 800 metres and more than could be expected against athletes from the borough of Sandwell, such a hot
spot for talented raw speed. After the final race was over it was over to the results. Walsall came second to the
borough of Sandwell and so it was only the individual schools’ results to contest. Shire Oak finished ahead of our
local rivals (Pool Hayes and Queen Mary’s) once again. With only two points between 1 st and 2nd place, the winning
school unfortunately for us was Wood Green Sports College with 121 points. Shire Oak’s boys, however, were
placed agonisingly close in 2nd place with 119 points. A tremendous success for this gifted bunch of lads. As with
everything in life, hard work pays dividends in the end. These lads should certainly consider 2 nd place to be a significant success in such a tough competition, where only the best were invited to take part. Well done!
Results—please remember, these results place our athletes in a ranking across the Black Country – not just Walsall!
PB = personal best: 100m A – Jayson Hicken – fell at start (spikes for Christmas, Jason?!); 100m B - Jack Hale –
2nd place 12.52 PB; 200M A – Jack Hale – 1st 25.80 PB; 200m B – Jayson Hicken – 1st 25.16 PB (spikes borrowed –
thanks to Sam Lynex!); 800m A – Jayson Hicken – 3rd place 2.19 PB; 800m B – Sam Lynex – 2nd place 2.18.36 PB; 2
x 200m – Sam Hayton – Wilcox & Jack Edge – 2nd place 28.71; 4 x 100m A – Sam Lynex, Liam McDermott, Jack
Hale & Jason Hicken – 1st place 52.21 PB; 4 x 100m B – Joe Birch, Sam Hayton- Wilcox, Jack Edge & Jack Hale – 1st
place 53.18 PB; Long Jump A – Liam McDermott – 5th place 4.30m; Long Jump B – Jack Edge – 7th place – 3.95m;
Javelin A – Joe Birch – 1st 25.30 PB; Javelin B – Liam McDermott – 1st 20.90; Shot Putt A – Joel Morris – 9.73 1st;
Shot Putt B - Joe Birch - 8.53 5th
Summer Term 2014 — edition 170— Page 2
Yass’s on par experience
Yass Oakley recently attended the ISPS Handa Ladies’ European Tour. This was an
excellent opportunity for him; he not only was able to play in the Pro-Am with Karrie
Webb, the 2013 Ladies Champion, but to also gain the benefit and knowledge of her
experience. He was able to meet with other professional golfers and to gain a real
insight into the professional golf world and the dedication, attitude, training and sheer
hard work, as well as raw talent, which is required to reach that level. It was an invaluable experience and one which many people Yass's age would not get. The professionals praised his talent and have encouraged him to keep up with the sport and
keep making improvements and, most of all, keep enjoying the game. He received
great encouragement from them. In addition to meeting professional golfers, he was
also able to meet and play with some disabled players who have overcome their disabilities and were truly inspirational to all. Yass is pictured left with Cheyenne
Woods (Tiger Woods’s niece).
Cameron stars again!
Of Mice and Men’s George
and Lennie visit Shire Oak!
Y10 English students were treated to a performance of Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ recently, to aid their controlled assessment work on the novella, set in
America during the 1930s Great
Depression. They watched an
interesting and creative performance of the text, with just two
talented actors playing the different roles. Their re-working of
the novella brought the text to
life and was “an amazing performance,” according to Jake Bird.
Harry Brownridge thought it
was, “a truly useful experience”
and Tomos Powell stated it was,
“an extremely interesting, original and clever representation.”
In the second half our students
dressed up in typical 1930s costumes and used American accents! Some enjoyed playing
Curley’s wife more than expected! “This made me feel
more fabulous than normal,”
stated David Riley, who starred
as Curley’s wife, alongside Benjamin Callow as Curley.
Cameron Kirkbride (Y9) represented
the West Midlands at the Midlands
Games recently, competing in the
300m, long jump and the 4 x 100m
relay. He was part of a relay team
that won and completed the race in
45.2 seconds. This was the quickest
time in the UK for his age group in
this event. As a result, he has been
selected to compete in the relay at
the U15 National Athletics Championships. This is a fantastic achievement for a student who is already on
the books at Leicester Tigers RFC.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
RELATING TO THE INQUEST
OUTCOME FOR JACK
In April our academy suffered a
tragic loss when Jack Garrington,
one of our Year 7 students, was
killed in a road accident on his way
home from school. The inquest
into Jack’s death was heard recently and it was reported in some local
newspapers. The wording of those
reports intimated that this accident
happened because Jack was responding to a call from another
pupil.
THIS WAS NOT THE CASE.
I have spoken to the coroner’s
office and it has been confirmed
that the student in question was
totally blameless. We shall be contacting the newspapers in question
to seek a retraction of the very
unfortunate wording which has
caused further massive upset for
the student and family concerned.
Curriculum Award 2000 and 2002