Mission Statement

To enhance the life experience of past,

current, and future students of

The Bulmershe School

B.A.C.

Bulmershe Alumni

Community

‘Where everyone matters’

ISSUE 7

THE BULMERSHE HEADMASTER,

DEPUTY HEAD, SENIOR TEACHERS,

AND STUDENTS,

BUT NOT FOR QUITE A LONG WHILE!

On Saturday 21st March 2015, around 150 Bulmershe alumni, from the student intakes of 1965 through to 1971, returned to

the school, along with twelve former teachers, for a reunion. Not quite everyone who came made the photo calls, but all had a

brilliant afternoon meeting some of those they had attended the school with, now quite a long while ago! Some of the alumni

who came had travelled from overseas to be present. There were alumni who these days live in Ireland, France, Italy, Finland,

Dubai and Australia, as well as those from across the UK. Following a welcome drink, the original Bulmershe Headmaster gave

a speech in which he reminisced about the early days at the school. There were tours of the school led by current students,

including the Head Boy and Girl. There was a presentation on the ideas for creating a Bulmershe Alumni Community, and this

was followed by a buffet and further opportunities to relive times gone by. Despite some differences, including the impressive

new building at the school, alumni were still able to recognise many familiar places, including classrooms where they had been

taught. There was much appreciation shown for the excellent education, and start in life, that Bulmershe School had provided.

Pride of place to the ‘Class of 1965’, back at their old School

after 50 years, with an attendance of 36 from an intake of 140

Class of 1971

Class of 1967

Class of 1966

Class of 1968

Class of 1969

Class of 1970

The Headmaster

Mr Ray Stagles

A B

C D E

F G H

‘I’m a PhD Scientist,

Get Me Back to Bulmershe!’

Sam Connolly, Class of 2001, is currently completing a

PhD at Southampton University. The focus of his study

is super massive black holes, which can be found at the

centres of galaxies! Sam gained a 1st Class Degree in

Physics with Astronomy, having studied at both

Southampton and at Harvard University in Boston Massachusetts. Earlier this year Sam won a

competition that led him back to Bulmershe recently. The competition, called ‘I’m a Scientist Get

Me Out of Here’, saw Sam competing with other Scientists to set up an outreach project to take

into schools. Having been voted the winner by the young people judging the competition, Sam was able to fund a portable

astrodome, which he has taken to a number of schools, including Bulmershe, to introduce students to astronomy. Sam is used

to teaching undergraduates at Southampton, but he really enjoyed coming back to his old school and taking groups from Years

7 to 11 into outer space, via the astrodome! Sam was also very pleased to see Mr Winfield, his physics teacher at Bulmershe.

Physiotherapy Sessions

Creative Accountancy !

Beenish Kamal was a student at Bulmershe between 1993 and 2000. She is now a highly

qualified physiotherapist working at the University of Bath, as well as a contractor for

England Hockey. Apart from teaching postgraduates on the Sports Physiotherapy MSc

programme, Beenish helps to look after a number of the country’s top athletes, including

some who took part in last year’s Commonwealth Games and the London Olympics. Prior to

her current job, Beenish spent two years working at Chelsea Football Club Academy at their

Cobham training ground. Beenish, who has a 1st Class Degree in Physiotherapy from Oxford

Brookes University, as well as a Masters in Sport & Exercise Medicine, returned to her old

school to offer advice, and run practical sessions with some of the Year 12 and 13 A’ Level Biology and P.E. classes. With the

Year 13 Biology class Beenish explained how an A’ Level in the subject had helped her progress to university and then into her

career. With the P.E. groups Beenish discussed how she has helped athletes to rehabilitate after serious injury, for example

following an anterior cruciate ligament tear. She also gave a practical session on leading ‘warm ups’ and ‘warm downs’ before

and after competition. For a number of seasons Beenish was the physio for Reading Ladies 1st XI Hockey team, who were the

English National Champions, as well as European Club Champions. This year Beenish has been to Dubai as a physio for the

Great Britain Ultimate Frisbee team’s who were taking part in the World Beach Championships. She is also off to South Korea

in July with Team GB for the World University Games.

Minaz Tejani, Class of 1991, and Tim Fradin, Class of 1984, gave excellent presentations in the new auditorium to the current

Year 12 students in a Personal Development lesson in March. Minaz is a Director working in the field of Creative Marketing

with Parago, a company in Reading, while Tim lives in London and is a Senior Manager at one of the big accountancy firms, AY.

As well as discussing their careers, and various ways those interested could get started, both Minaz and Tim also highlighted

ways they felt that the ethos and strengths of Bulmershe School had

given them an excellent foundation from which to progress in life.

Beenish in action as physio for the Reading Ladies Hockey 1st XI,

and demonstrating physiotherapy techniques with a P.E. class

Beenish talks to A’ Level Biology students about career choices

Back to school for Minaz and Tim.

Mr Hulley and Mrs Harrison used to

be taller than their students!

Minaz talks marketing to Year 12. His son is in this year group

Beenish with ‘Class of 1993’ friend

Katherine Brickley, now a paramedic, and

their Head of Year Miss Emerson

Sam with Mr Winfield

The Bulmershe Alumni Updates

and let`s not forget the Staff...a quiz!

Holly is the most recently appointed member of staff at Bulmershe who used to be a

student of the School. Holly, who is a member of the Class of 2004, has always

wanted to work with young people. During her time in the sixth form she had a part

time job at Country Gardens at Loddon Bridge. After leaving school Holly moved to a

full time job at the Henry Street Garden Centre in Shinfield, where she ran the Leap

Frog Pottery Studio. However, although busy at weekends, week days were quiet

and Holly was often on her own. Seeking more of a daily buzz, and weekends to

herself, Holly applied, and was appointed as an LSA at Bulmershe in October 2014.

Holly has been coming into School at weekends though, to help at the reunions. Her

First Aid qualification is useful as cover for the events. Holly's dad was also working

at the March reunion as he is one of the Schools site supervisors.

Martin Henson is a Professor of Computer Science. He has recently retired from his post at the

University of Essex to pursue a late-stage career as a higher-education consultant. While at

Essex, Martin was Head of the School of Computer Science and Electronics for six years and

then Dean for International Affairs for four. He now works mainly in the Middle East, helping

government ministries and universities in countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman and the U.A.E, to

build their capacities in education, research, planning and governance. Martin also holds a

Visiting Professorship at the University of Waikato in New Zealand and at the King Abdul Aziz

University in Jeddah.

Martin was a student at Bulmershe School from 1966 to 1973. He gained a degree in Physical

Electronics at Southampton University before completing a PGCE, for which Computing was his

subsidiary subject. In preparation for his PGCE course he spent a few weeks back at Bulmershe

under the mentorship of Mr Bean, who had also taught him Science. Martins first teaching position was at a school in Sudbury

where the Headteacher encouraged his interest in computer technology, which was very new in schools back in 1977. Martin

was soon treated as something an expert and was asked to lead seminars with the school inspectorate and teachers from

other schools in Suffolk that were interested in developing computing. After some further study at university Martin was

appointed as a lecturer at the University of Essex. Here his academic work was in the area of formal methods for software

engineering, working first on programming language semantics, then pioneering new approaches to program transformation

and verification, and towards the end of his career, developing specification logics. Martin has published a number of books,

and many articles on these aspects of computer science. He is delighted to have built successfully on his Bulmershe School

General Studies report comment made by his teacher Mrs Must, ‘Martin shows some promise at Computing’!

Martin has homes in Suffolk and in Bucharest, as his partner, also a

computer scientist, works at a university in Romania. He still returns to

Woodley to visit his mum, who continues to live close to Bulmershe. He

was very happy to see former classmates, look round his old school, and

meet with some of his former teachers, including Mr Bean, at the reunion

in March. He says: “I can't overstate the importance of my education at

Bulmershe. My teachers and Mr Stagles were an inspiration.”

Martin Henson

Holly Gardiner

Scott Addington

Nine Bulmershe teachers appear on the front page .

1, Name them 2, When did Mr Stagles retire?

3, Who was the Head of Science? 4, Which of these

teachers has been honoured with an OBE?

5, Who abseiled from the roof at an end of year

party? 6, Which teacher’s name is on the annual

Cup for Languages presented since their retirement

in 1992? 7, A Chemistry teacher with the initial G?

8, Male Geography teacher? 9, Maths teacher who

began at Bulmershe in 1971? 10, Left Bulmershe to

run an outdoor education centre in Cornwall?

Answers to the quiz can be found on the back page.

Martin with other members of the Class of 1966 in the

Bulmershe School drama studio at the recent reunion

Holly with three friends in the sixth form

Scott attended Bulmershe between 1985 and 1992.

He works in marketing by day, but is a writer of

history books by night! In marketing he knows

communicating a message simply is essential, and

he has applied this to his writing. His books are

written more in the style of ‘a chat down the pub’,

as he feels many readers are put off history by

writers who are too wordy and academic. Scott's

eight books are all available to

buy on Amazon. Further details

can be found on his website at

www.scottaddington.com

If you have any pictures or reminiscences from your time at the school, or updates on your life and career since you left and would be happy

to share them with us, please e mail to; alumni@bulmershe.wokingham.sch.uk Thank you.

BULMERSHE 50th REUNION DATES

Saturday 25th April 2015 The 1972 to 1979 Intakes

Saturday 9th May 2015 The 1980 to 1984 Intakes

Saturday 20th June 2015 The 1985 to 1988 Intakes

Saturday 11th July 2015 The 1989 to 1992 Intakes

Saturday 19th September 2015 The 1993 to 1996 Intakes

Saturday 17th October 2015 The 1997 to 2000 Intakes

Penny Roux writes this Bulmershe story from around the World

Tickets cost £10. To get a ticket by post, send a request, together with a cheque payable

to ‘Bulmershe School’ and a stamped self-addressed envelope for return. Please send to:

Alumni Relations, Bulmershe School, Woodlands Avenue, Woodley, Berkshire, RG5 3EU.

To pay and receive a ticket electronically, make payment to the Schools HSBC bank

account sort code 404739 account number 01238361 giving a surname and year you

started Bulmershe as reference. Then email alumni@bulmershe.wokingham.sch.uk saying

you have made a payment. Once the Finance Office has confirmed the payment a ticket

will be emailed to you! Alternatively tickets can be bought in person from school reception

during term time, weekdays 8am to 4pm (3.30pm on Friday). Partners/family members of

alumni do not need a ticket, although we would like to know how many will be coming for

logistical purposes on the day. Tickets for the July Reunion will be available in May.

APRIIL, MAY,

AND JUNE

REUNION

TICKETS

NOW ON

SALE

Reunion Planners

I’m the Bulmershe pupil who moved out of the marsh into the fens and the swamps of Finland! I left the school in 1976 and went to France as an au pair for a year before studying Business Administration at Loughborough University. It was a four-year degree programme that included a one-year internship which I spent in France working for Digital Equipment, the computer company that used to have offices in Reading. After I graduated, I was offered a permanent position in their French subsidiary and ended up working for DEC for over twenty years. In that time I travelled all over the world from Maynard in Massachusetts to Taipei in Taiwan, which is where I met my Finnish husband! We settled in the suburbs of Paris and our three boys were born in the mid-90s. When DEC was taken over by Compaq I took a redundancy package and went back to study for a year, retraining as an English Foreign Language (EFL) teacher at the British Institute in Paris. My husband’s new job with Nokia took us to Budapest, where we lived for two years, and then to Finland which has been home for us since 2001. I have been teaching English to adults in Finland for over ten years and co-authored an EFL course-book called Stepping Stones in 2013. I took a post-grad diploma in vocational teacher education and started teaching accounting and finance at a university in Helsinki. Between us we speak six European languages (not including my O-level Russian!) and usually manage to use at least four on a daily basis at home! Weekends and holidays are spent at our mökki in the countryside – a log cabin where we have a vegetable garden, bees, sheep and a canoe. It was my sister, (a Waingels Copse alumna, who still lives in the Reading area) who told me of the Bulmershe reunion plans, having read about them in a local newspaper. I found the School website and Alumni Community Facebook page just in time to buy a ticket for the reunion in March. I had completely lost touch with all my friends from Bulmershe, but it felt so nice to be back in the school surrounded by familiar faces. It is truly amazing how many anecdotes we remembered. Thanks again to all those who made the event happen; I’m so glad I was able to be there.

Quiz answers;

1, Mr Stagles and answers 3 to 10.

2, 1976, 3, C Mr Bean, 4, B Miss Hulbert,

5, A Miss Sutton, 6, E Mr Pearson,

7, H Mr Yeo, 8, F Mr Shawyer,

9, D Miss Edwards, 10, G Mr Frost.

BBC TV Comedy ‘SunTrap’, written by Bulmershe alumnus Neil Webster. Coming soon to BBC1

We are very grateful to

KYOCERA for printed copies

of the Bulmershe Alumni

newsletter. THANK YOU

Many thanks are due to all the Year

Group Coordinators who have been

working to build contact numbers

within their year groups, and also

assisting with the reunion planning.

Penny on stage at Bulmershe in the 1974 Sixth form pantomime Robin Hood. Also

in the production was Mark Norris, owner of HF Newberry the Woodley Card Shop

Laura Goodfellow, a Coordinator for the Class of 1977,

with Phil Redrup, Coordinator for Class of 1972, and

Denise Hensby, Class of 1976 Coordinator, at the

Thatchers in March, reminiscing and reunion planning

A new 6 part situation comedy called SunTrap is scheduled on BBC1 this spring. It is written by

former Bulmershe student Neil Webster (Class of 1984), who is also the producer. The series,

which stars Bradley Walsh and Kayvan Novak, is set on a fictitious Spanish island and involves

an undercover reporter. Speaking on behalf of his production company, Happy Tramp, Neil

says, ‘We’re delighted to have made this huge, silly, sunny show for the BBC. It was great fun.’ Director Ben Palmer, Kayvan Novak, and Neil Webster