Student, Saffron, is a bit of a star on the ice. The 14 year old has already represented her country in Italy and Switzerland at the Chiasso Tournament, and this year will travel to the Czech Republic and Latvia with the England Under 15s Ice Hockey Team.

Team England won the Chiasso tournament and secured the first gold for England for 5 years. This was a particularly memorable occasion for Saffron, who was presented with a special shirt as ‘English Player of the Tournament’ by the English League Officals, who accompanied the team.

Saffron is the only girl ever to play in the team and she told us a bit about how she reached this standard of excellence.

“When I was seven years old, I started skating at the Telford Ice Rink, and after two weeks, joined ‘Telford Venom’ - the Under 10s Ice Hockey Team. Then I joined the Nottingham Under 16s Girls Team (this is the nearest girls team to where I live) and continue to play for them, as well as the national team.”

We asked Saffron if it was different playing on the girls’ team: “It’s a different style of play - it’s slower and not nearly as forceful as the boy’s matches.”

And the future ? “I’ve been offered a scholarship in Canada, but have decided to stay at William Brookes, then, hopefully, go to University in Canada. It’s a great opportunity - the sport is really big over there and they’re very enthusiastic about it. I’d have the chance to play alongside some superb skaters.”

So, you’d play for a Canadian team, but you’d still be willing to play for England at international level, if you could ? “Well, I’ve been pencilled in for the 2014 Winter Olympics, in Russia, and will do my very best to be representing England there.”

Saffron was presented with a repeat award on Tuesday 23rd January at the John Beswick International Awards. She received her award from Liz Nicholson, Shropshire’s Director of Young People & Childrens Services.

We are very proud of Saffron’s achievement and look forward to following her progress into and beyond the olympics.

Thanks to Ellie Peters for supplying us with this poster for next year’s ALL SCHOOL REUNION. This really is the last chance ‘Old William Brookesians’ will get to mingle in the shadows of the original school.

We thought it best to let folks know of the event well in advance: some of you may be making a long journey and might appreciate the advance warning.

We’ll be digging deep into our archives for some photies for the day, and would ask you to send any pictures you have to wbs2010reunion@yahoo.co.uk

Seven Sixth Form students have taken flight to participate in the ‘Youths and the Olympics’ event at Ancient Olympia, Greece. 25 schools from across the world are meeting near Athens to celebrate the work of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games.
We are the only Coubertin school in the UK, and owe this to our unique heritage as home to Dr William Penny Brookes, founder of the Wenlock Olympian Games.
The students will participate in sporting challenges, discussions, lectures and visits to historic sites to prepare them for their return as Ambassadors for Olympic Youth.
As part of the event, delegates will attempt to gain the Coubertin Award by completing community, sports, arts and knowledge challenges.
William Brookes will be hosting the 20011 forum in the run up to the Olympic Games.

As work starts on the new swimming pool, Jaya and Rebecca celebrate their efforts in raising £335 for the Teenage Cancer Trust.  The girls came up with the idea to make people aware of the condition and to raise funds for suffering teenagers.

The swim lasted over an hour and covered 245 lengths of the pool, which is 6.125 kilometres (nearly 4 miles in old money).  “It was quite hard, but definitely worth doing”.

Both girls belong to Northgate Swimming Club and are very excited about the new swimming pool.

Let’s hope the new facility encourages even more people to aspire to Jaya and Rebecca’s swimming ability.

Congratulations to Matthew, a Year 10 William Brookes student who completed a 60 mile sponsored bike ride on Sunday 17^th May.

The ride began at New Street, Birmingham, 10.00 a.m. and finished a gruelling six hours later in Cheltenham.

Raising more than £300 for the following charities:- Autism West Midlands, Autonomy and Conductive Education.

The day was wet and windy and Matthew commented: “It was very hard at times with quite a few hills: some of them were long climbs, like the one at Broadway, but we all encouraged each other to get up them. There were about 300 of us taking part”.

Film Studies students have been busy promoting a performance as part of their work for the Young Promoters Scheme. Pathway to the Red Sun is set in a futuristic Japan and is a fusion of acrobatics, opera and horror, with a love interest. Something for everyone, by the sounds of it.

The show will air for one night only, and tickets are on sale now at £8/£6 with a special rate of just £4 for students. So, if you want a ticket you’d better beat a pathway to the Edge, pronto. Performance is Thursday 5th March at 7.30 pm.

Click on the poster to jump to the website.