King Edward VI Five Ways School

Background

It was first in the school league tables in 2007. Currently the school has around 1150 pupils in attendance amongst the lower school (years 7-11) and over 100 staff, some of whom are former pupils. The school is unique amongst the King Edward VI Foundation, being the only fully co-educational one. The school scored "outstanding" in every category with Ofsted report in November 2005. The school is Voluntary Aided. Parents are asked to make a 'voluntary contribution' each year of around £30 per pupil to 'The School Club'. This money is used solely to provide extras and benefits for all school pupils throughout the year. The school uses some unusual terminology matching that of other Foundation schools, such as naming site managers or caretakers "porters" and homework, "private study", though not all teachers employ these terms. The school is much over-subscribed, the ninth in the country, according to The Times, with 10.6 candidates competing for 1 place.

History

Established as a boys' school in 1883, part of the King Edward VI Foundation, the school's original building was that of the former Edgbaston Proprietary School, on Hagley Road at its junction with Ladywood Road, at Five Ways, approximately 1 mile south-west of Birmingham city centre. The school, designed by J.A. Chatwin was opened on 16 January 1883 by A. J. Mundella with provision for 350 boys the Headmaster being E.H.F. MacCarthy, formerly a master at the main King Edward's School. He remained in the post until retirement in 1916, and now has a building named after him at the Bartley Green site. Originally the school educated only up to age 16, Fifth Form, and to go to Oxbridge a pupil had to transfer to the main King Edward's School, at the time in New Street. However, MacCarthy's successor, Mr Barker, introduced a Sixth Form.

During the Second World War, the Headmaster at the time, Mr Dobinson, decided to evacuate the school to Monmouth, and the boys attended Monmouth School, the two staffs sharing the teaching. This meant that all the staff and pupils were lodged in the town, and could only keep in contact with family via correspondence; Mr Dobinson was able occasionally to visit Birmingham.

After the war the school was becoming overcrowded, but due to development around the school there was no opportunity to expand, so a new site was found. On 23 April 1958 the school opened at its current home in Bartley Green, a suburb on the extreme south-west of Birmingham. The new school was built on the site of the Bartley Farm, which had been purchased by the Foundation, next to Bartley Reservoir. The site was elevated, and in the winter a bleak place.

The relocation was not universally popular. The school Debating Society passed a motion regretting the move. Staff were concerned about the effect the relocation to such a distant suburb would have on the school's intake, which because of the central position had been drawn from the whole city; many boys who had joined the school at Five Ways, easily reached from all parts of the city, suddenly had considerably longer journeys to its new remote location. This undoubtedly affected admissions in later years. Then the school's corridors were considered too narrow, and whilst the playing fields were extensive the school buildings themselves were small and rather basic, with limited common areas.

The time since 1958 has seen the development of much improved facilities, largely due to Arminio, however. Buildings new to the Bartley Green 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, as well as the current building of the Fitness Suite and extension to the art rooms in the MacCarthy Block.

Five Ways was one of the first schools in the West Midlands to introduce computer technology in 1978. This was achieved with a communications link to use computing facilities at Aston University.

Girls have been admitted to Five Ways since 1988, first in the Sixth Form, then in the main school ten years later. Today Five Ways is the largest co-educational grammar school in the West Midlands, and one of the top five co-ed grammar schools nationally.

Headteachers

The school has had 11 Headmasters and 1 Headmistress in its history.

1. Revd Egerton Francis Mead MacCarthy 1883 - 1916
2. Arthur Ernest Barker 1916 - 1933
3. Charles Henry Dobinson 1933 - 1945
4. Harry Robert Roach 1946 - 1951
5. Thomas Charles Burgess 1951 - 1963 (Oversaw move to Bartley Green; died in post)
6. Roland Mathias 1964 - 1969
7. Peter Rodney Watkins 1969 - 1974
8. Geoffrey Sanders 1974 - 1991
9. Revd John G. Knowles 1991 - 1999
10. Peter Limm 1999 - 2002
11. David Wheeldon 2002 – 2012
12. Yvonne Wilkinson 2012–present

Yvonne Wilkinson was Acting Headmistress from September to December 2002, the first Headmistress in the school's history, although as she served in, an acting capacity, for only one term, it was not properly a Headmistressship. She returned as the first actual headmistress from the start of the 2012-2013 school year, after a headship at Gateways School, Leeds].

Entry

Pupils must pass an 11-plus entrance exam to get into the school. The King Edward Schools are academic powerhouses and therefore fiercely competitive to get admission. The entrance examination is tough and only 1 in 10 are successful.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. Formerly 155 were selected from each year, from more than 1,500 candidates; with a few more accepted every year on appeal. From September 2014 the school increased its intake to 180 pupils in Year 7. A pupil has the opportunity to list the Foundation schools that he or she prefers, and depending on the results, may get allocated into one of the schools.

Students can also enter the school at sixth form level, though they do not have to take a test for this. Instead, places are awarded based on GCSE grades, requiring at least an A in any subject you wish to take, A* in Maths to take Further Maths, and a B in English and Maths if they do not already form part of your offer. Again, at this level places are highly competitive with students applying from all over Birmingham and the surrounding areas. There are approximately 50 external candidates in each year.

Subjects Offered

At GCSE, students are obliged to choose at least one humanities subject (options include History, Geography [and formerly Geology]), at least one foreign language (options include French, German, Latin and Spanish), and other traditional subjects such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Statistics, English Language, English Literature and Religious Studies. Other options include: Music, Art, Drama, Product Design, Food Technology, Systems and Control, PE and AS Information Technology (conditional on an 'A' in IT GCSE). The requirements to stay in the school for A Levels are 4 A grades in the subjects selected for A Level study.

Four subjects are picked at AS Level. Most year 11 students study General Studies AS, although several in each year group are selected to study Film Studies, or Environmental studies (both AS level). Options exclusive to A Level studies are: Economics, Government & Politics, Classical Civilisation, Sport Studies, Psychology and Philosophy as well as courses from down the school. There is also a Further Maths option, which enables a candidate to take two A Levels, one in Mathematics, one in Further Maths, over the two years. From 2013, the school no longer offers IB courses.

The International Baccalaureate took its first cohort of students in 2011. For the first 2-year course a variety of SL and HL subjects have been offered along with TOK (Theory of Knowledge). Subjects World Literature and Mathematics are compulsory but are at SL and HL. One subject from Biology, Chemistry or Physics must be chosen at SL or HL. One subject from History, Geography or Economics must be chosen at SL or HL. One subject from French, Spanish, German (and hopefully in the future Mandarin and Latin) at ab initio [from scratch] level, SL or HL. One more option is fulfilled by a science, humanities or foreign language option or the choice of Visual Arts at SL or HL. In March 2013 prospective students were informed that the International Baccalaureate will no longer be offered due to lack of interest and applications from internal Year 11 students who wished to stay on the next year, and timetable and staffing constraints.

2016 Results

At GCSE, 100% of candidates achieved at least 5 A*-C grades, and 100% of all entries were between A*-C. 74% were in the A*-A range, and 91% were in the A*-B range. The school excelled in English Literature and Religious Studies. In 2007, 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. 37 students achieved all A*/A grades. 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.

Sport

At Five Ways, for lower school there are 3 periods for sport, consisting of 50 minutes each, each week. PE and "games" are no longer separate entities. Before 2007 (September) periods would have been 60 minutes and games would only take up one hour. The main sports in games were netball, hockey, rounders, football, basketball for girls, and cricket and rugby for boys. Two groups partake in different sports. Football is not one of the traditional sports at the school.

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. In 2007, Parsons finished tenth in the high-jump at the 2007 World Athletics Championship, in Osaka, Japan.

Cricket

Cricket is the traditional Summer term sport within Five Ways. Teams of all age groups compete regularly.

Rugby Union

Rugby Union is Five Ways' traditional Winter sport. The most famous old boy is Keith Fielding, who was a dual-code international winger that played Rugby Union for England from 1969-73 (10 caps) and Rugby League for England (8 caps) and Great Britain (4 caps) from 1974-77. He played his club rugby for Moseley (RU) and Salford (RL). He played 319 games as a professional for Salford from 1973–83, scoring 253 tries. He was a small, stocky, superb sprinter who also achieved fame on television competing in the very popular Superstars competition from 1977–82, winning the British final in 1981 and coming third in the International event the same year. He held the school records at numerous athletics events, including the 100 yards (I doubt this is ever likely to be beaten) long jump and, amazingly for a short individual, the high jump. Five Ways regularly enters the Daily Mail Cup, with mixed success. In 2006/2007, the Under 15 Team advanced to the quarter finals 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. In 2007-2008 the Year 7 team won the Greater Birmingham, and the 2010-2011 U15 team still unbeaten in Europe. The 2007-08 U16 Team is the most successful team in the history of the school; 87 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss in 5 years. James Whybrow and Nile Dacres went on to join Worcester Warriors academy. Half-back pairing Will Rea and Peter Gizauskas share the record for most appearances for the school. One of the strongest 1st XV's was that of 1972 which included the future Moseley captain and England U23 cap, Gary Cox, and the future England B player Malcolm Evans.

Debating

In 2006 the school competed in the grand final of the Midlands School Debating Competition, one of four teams to make it this far out of over 100 schools competing and finished in third place overall.

The school also reached the final of the Oxford Schools Competition, and the finals of the Cambridge Schools Competition, two hitherto unprecedented triumphs for Five Ways. reaching the final 4 schools in the country in the 2007 "debating matters" tournament and in 2007 and 2008, won the 'Great Shakespeare Debate' at Stratford-Upon-Avon. They managed to win the competition, defeating North London Collegiate School in the final in both years.

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. 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 took place. Other productions included a 'multi-cultural' Dracula, which had received much attention in the West Midlands press prior to the actual play, an upper-school production of Dinner and Much Ado About Nothing for the Shakespeare Youth Festival.

For the 2008/09 academic year, the Sixth Form (and subsequently, only,) production was The Count of Monte Cristo. This was the school's first student written and directed play, and was done by then-Upper Sixth former Stuart Hardy.

During 2009/10 there was a dramatic rise in the amount of drama being introduced into the school. There was the Fairytale High productions which took place during Autumn Term, with an Asian Arts drama production too. Then a commendable following performances included The Crucible which was nominated for a commendation in the Columba trophy (with a KEFW student winning an award at the ceremony). Moreover, into Spring Term, there was a tremendous Jesus Christ Superstar Musical production which blew away the vast audience watching with powerful and blissful singing from all actors. A KS3 performance displaying the Fairy Tale: Beauty and the Beast was also staged by Sixth Form Students. Finally, an Open Air Shakespeare production in the Summer was presented to end the year with A Midsummer Night's Dream on the school quadrangle.

In the spring of 2012, three sterling sixth form pupils directed an all-singing, all-dancing production of the dark tale: 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'. The performance sold out in three night consecutively, and is considered by staff and pupils alike 'the most inspired piece of drama in the school's history'. The pupils were highly commended for their stellar efforts.

2012 saw the Teacher's Panto return. A wonderful adaptation of Cinderella, written and directed by a sixth former, was performed in the Autumn term's charity week. The clever script contained many references to school life, and featured staff from many departments. The panto ticket sales and bucket collection raised £700 for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

The 2012 Autumn term also saw KS3 perform Arabian Nights, which was universally agreed to be a success.

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.

Chess

Five Ways takes part in the Birmingham & District Junior Chess League. 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. A number of Five Ways players have ECF grades, 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.

Music

The school offers extracurricular 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. There are also smaller ensembles such as Brass Group, Cello Group and Flute Choir. Newman University is also used for some performances.

House system

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

History

The House System was originally introduced by Mr Barker. He appointed four housemasters, who gave their names to the houses (Roses, Rants, Bates, McPherson). In 1973 the system was abolished by Mr Sanders, then headteacher, due to dwindling interest. In 1990 the system was reinstated, but the new houses were named after the first four Headmasters of the school, MacCarthy (yellow), Barker (red), Dobinson (blue) and Roach (green).

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.

The recent revival in the house system has brought a wide variety of both sporting and non-sporting events, throughout the whole year, involving every age group in the school, and including house Cross Country, Sudoku, Dancing and Cookery. House points are awarded to the house with the highest number of merit points in each year, with 2nd, 3rd and 4th place houses getting fewer points. Five house points are also awarded for each Head's Commendation a pupil receives.

Recent revival and house events day

This new pro-house initiative was unofficially launched in the Summer term 2006, 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.

The most popular event in the new House System, is the tug-o-war. 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.

Results

Current totals are announced monthly, during Friday morning assemblies.

A table of the winners:

1. Barker - 6 times (with Barker winning 'five years in a row', a new record, from 2007–2011)
2. Roach - 6 times (a first tie-breaker in 2012 with Dobinson)
3. Dobinson - 4 times
4. MacCarthy - 3 times

Rivalries

Dobinson and Roach have a strong rivalry, partly because of the tie at the end of the 2011-2012 school year. This rivalry has included kidnaping the opposite house's mascot and generally antagonising the opponents.

Barker have been a power house in recent years, but it is considered that they have lost their edge since their defeat in 2012 until 2015 where they have managed to pull themselves back up to the dominating power.

MacCarthy have, unfortunately, won the least times out of all the houses, but they see some success at many events, for example House Board Games.

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, 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:

The 2006/7 school year saw 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 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.

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 Sixth Form Centre. There are a number of dedicated computer rooms, a staffed library, a Connexions career room, and all classrooms are equipped with Interactive whiteboards. The school also has a modern fitness suite as well as a new building with changing rooms and a sports Pavillion.

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

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.

Bus Service

The school has a special school bus, The Green Bus. There are 6 current routes, numbered 881- 886 excluding 882, which changed its name to 782. They are used by a large proportion of the school, but since the price increase owing to loss of government subsidies, fewer use this service. The public buses 22, 18, X64 and 002 are also highly used buses. They are run by National Express West Midlands.

International links

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."

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.

In Summer 2006 a small group of students from the VI Form travelled to Babati to see 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.

The English School

Five Ways was approached by Pate's Grammar School in 2005. They have an established link with the English School in Guangzhou, but struggle to accommodate the numbers of students from the partner school that wish to visit Britain. Therefore, Five Ways agreed to assist. Six students spent time in Birmingham in July 2005 and a party of six sixth formers and Deputy Head Mrs Long visited China in October 2005. Since then an exchange has occurred regularly.

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.

Christchurch Boys' School

Links are being forged at the moment with Christchurch Boys' High School in the South island of New Zealand.

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.

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.

Afri Twin link

The Afri Twin 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.

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.

Five Ways Old Edwardians

Notable alumni include: