Obituaries:

Eric Bennett

Former Headmaster Eric Bennett (1957 - 1970) sadly passed away on October 8th 2005, aged 94. He was the third headmaster in the history of the school and oversaw many changes as education developed during the 1960's, in particular with the rapid expansion in the number of pupils progressing to university. He leaves a widow Ria and sons Anthony and Stephen to whom we send our sincere sympathy.

William Webb
It is with great sadness that I have to report the death of William Webb, our piano teacher, who died suddenly and unexpectedly just before half term. Mr Webb was a widely respected musician and teacher who inspired his pupils with a love of music and performing. His reputation spread far beyond Bournemouth and he will be sorely missed.

Urfan Mirza

It was with a sense of shock, disbelief and great sadness that we learnt this morning (31st January 2005) of the untimely death of Mr. Urfan Mirza who had taught chemistry at the school since 1996. He was only 38. As far as we know he passed way peacefully, having just returned to his family home in Southampton after going jogging. He will be greatly missed by his current pupils and by many previous students who have benefited from his dedication and understanding of his subject for the past 8 years. Our thoughts are with his mother and his sisters.

December 2004

Sporting Achievements

Football
The 1st XI reached the last 64 teams in the National Cup,before going out 5-4 on penalties to Charters School, Ascot. This was an excellent achievement. Although the team draws mainly from the 6th Form, Joe Dibben (11E) is a regular member. Joe also plays for Dorset U-16s.
Years 7 and 9 are still in the County Cup, with all the teams looking forward to the football term, starting in January.

Rugby
The 1st XV lost in the 2nd round of the Daily Mail Cup and were beaten in the semifinals of the Bournemouth Floodlit Cup. The Year 10’s did extremely well by reaching the fourth round of the Plate Competition. In Years 7, 8 and 9, the boys have committed themselves superbly this season and have gained some excellent results.

Basketball
Basketball practice is now a regular feature of lunchtimes and the boys will be playing matches against other schools next term.

Concert
The first concert of the school year attracted nearly 100 performers and an audience of over 200. The concert included a Year 7 choir of 30 boys, a Chamber orchestra that played part of Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 and Worlock’s Capriol Suite, the Joint Orchestra played two movements of Haydn’s Military Symphony, while the concert finished with a set from the Big Band, showing off their newly acquired pair of congas. The big band was asked to play for the turning on of the Christmas Lights in the Town Square on Sunday 21 November and a choir sang carols at a local nursing home on 10 December

July 2004

Teaching Staff
As always at this time of year, we have to say goodbye to members of staff, some of whom have devoted many years of their lives to the boys of Bournemouth School. This year we are losing the services of Mr. Skipsey (Mathematics), Mr. Davies (French/Spanish), Mr. Crockett (Chemistry, Assistant Head of Elgar House), Mr. Nevin (Biology) and Miss Sawyer and Mr Long, both of whom are recent recruits to the English department. Our sincere thanks and good wishes for the future go to each one.

Sports
Once again the pupils have excelled during the summer term, with many boys representing Dorset at cricket and athletics. In total there have only been five losses at cricket in all age groups. The year 8 and 9 teams continued to be successful and have reached the town cup final for the second year running. The year 7 team has the potential to be a very good cricket side and the year 10 side was unlucky not to make the town final. The year 9 and 10 teams are still in the county plate, with the year 9 team having already reached the final. Athletics has been difficult to run this term, with the town finals being cancelled due to the modification of the Kings Park athletics track. However, a good many boys represented the county, having either won or came second in their trial events.
Football: The Y8 squad had an extremely successful season this year. They reached the semi-finals of the County Cup before going out to Budmouth (the eventual champions) on penalties after extra-time. The boys then went on to win the Town 6-a-side tournament, after a rather shaky start and moved on to win the Town 11-a-side cup.
For the first time, we were able to field a Y8 ‘B’ squad for a specially arranged match against Winton. The opposition turned up with some of their ‘A’ team players. Despite making 8 changes at half time to give all of our squad a game, the boys gelled very quickly and came from behind to finish 2-2 in a very competitive fixture.

Year 7 Languages Day
Over 20 staff were involved recently in trying to ensure that Year 7 spent a whole day speaking and learning in French! Science, R.S., Art and Drama were just a few of the subjects that were taught in French by enthusiastic (brave?) teachers. Even the catering staff got into the spirit, with fresh-baked croissants provided for all the boys. We hope to increase the number and range of these days, which are a very important element of our commitment to ensure that we produce confident and capable linguists.
Visits:
13 boys from years 9 and 10, accompanied by 3 members of staff, spent the recent half-term holiday in a hotel in Cologne. They enjoyed a very full programme of visits and activities, including sightseeing in Cologne, Bonn and the Rhine Valley and visits to a theme park, Phantasialand. Several visits were made to traditional Cologne restaurants, sampling large helpings of real Rhineland cuisine. On three separate occasions private Germans came to the group's table to congratulate the boys on their wonderful behaviour. The boys gained further commendation from the proprietress of the hotel. An excellent trip, and the boys made good progress
with their German! A few weeks earlier, Mr Pyke and Mr Granger attended the final meeting of our Comenius project in Dresden, accompanied by four of the year 9 boys who have been involved in the project. The event was very well-organised and, despite a 9-hour delay at Munich Airport on the way out, the group found the experience immensely rewarding. Once again, the behaviour. of the boys was exemplary and they have each forged firm links with friends from around Europe. Seven schools were involved in this project, two from Germany and one each from Bournemouth, France, Spain, Holland and Denmark.

Speech Day
I am delighted to announce that we have been fortunate to persuade Mr Mike Wooldridge, BBC Correspondent and expupil of Bournemouth School, to present the prizes at our Senior Speech Day in September. We hope that as many of this year's Upper 6th as possible will be able to join us for their final event before moving off to their new university lives (or gap years!).

House Speech Competitions
We have now established a pattern of running one section of these competitions each term, mostly in lunchtimes. For the Senior and Intermediate competitions a debating style is used, and for the Junior a public speaking style. The standard of delivery and organisation of material has been much enhanced by the judges offering more serious topics and a growing tradition of debating in the upper part of the school. Competitors in the Intermediate competition gained usefully distinguished grades for GCSE English.

Drama Production
On the 31st March and 1st April at the end of the Spring Term the members of the lower half of the school staged a production of Richard Rodney Bennett’s All the King’s Men as the second half of an evening concert. For three-quarters of an hour the citizens of Gloucester confronted the Royalists before a black and white landscape backcloth and from behind their stony ramparts. Strong singing and some energetic acting brought the piece to life, and the audience included on one night former members of staff who had staged it some years ago. Technical and support teams re-formed after a period of quiet on our stage and helped deliver a very colourful entertainment. Thanks are particularly due to Mrs Gale for her help with the costumes.

All items from the Headmaster's Newsletters to parents 2004

	© Copyright 2005 The Old Bournemouthians' Association. All rights reserved. Last revised:13th October 2005 <- Click on OBA to return to Home Page Send comments to Webmaster