2013 School League Tables

The Lincolnshire secondary school league tables have been published.

Boston Grammar School and Boston High School seem to have faired quite well, with the High School slightly in front.

SCHOOL NAME	Number of pupils eligible for GCSEs	% of pupils achieving 5+ A*-C, inc. English and Maths	Rank within local authority for pupils getting five Cs at GCSE	Average GCSE points score per pupil	% of pupils achieving the English Baccalaureate	A-Level points score per student	A-level points score per exam entry	Rank within local authority, according to A-level points score
Boston Grammar School	82	96%	9	525.5	37%	765.8	193.1	20
Boston High School	71	100%	2	588.5	25%	778.2	214.5	18

Full details of the league table can be found on on this link.

William Edward Cox

William Edward Cox

There have been a number of Boston Grammar School students who have gone on to teach at their old school. One of those was William Edward Cox, who was a student 1921-1929, winning the Parry Gold Medal in his final year. He was a member of staff from 1950 to  his retirement in 1971.

William Edward Cox is the subject of the latest new article on the OBA Wiki.

From the top of my head, others who have been both students and staff at Boston Grammar School include Michael Maltby and Steve Neal.

Cyril Herbert George Bland

There are times when it's quite obvious when something is going to be interesting to people and there are times when you get personal satisfaction from something but you're not sure whether anyone else will be at all interested. This is one of the latter times and I apologise if you aren't interested.

Sussex county cricket team of 1897

For quite a while I have known about Cyril Herbert George Bland and I've found out various things about him along the way. Most notably, he could be the only first class cricketer to come out of Boston Grammar School (contact me if you know different). He played for Sussex in the 1890s and early years of the 20th century.

The more I found out about him, the more I wondered what he looked like, beyond David Frith's description  in his book Silence of the Heart: Cricket Suicides as "Personable, wirily built and with ears that stuck out". Finally, today I found a photograph of the 1897 Sussex county cricket team which included Cyril.

As you will guess from the title of David Frith's book, Cyril Bland committed suicide, drowning himself at Cowbridge, Boston in 1950.

The photograph is shown here. I have also included the list of people on it in the OBA Wiki entry for Cyril Herbert George Bland.

New notables on the wiki

John Cridland speaking
at the 2011 OBA Annual Dinner

There are two new articles on the OBA Wiki today. They are about two old boys who have gone on to very different careers.

• John Cridland is the current Director General of the CBI. He was one of two guest speakers at the 2011 Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner and was also the guest at the 2012 Boston Grammar School Prize Giving. He is often in the news, making statements on behalf of the CBI.



Danny Butterfied

• Danny Butterfield is a professional footballer who has played for Grimsby Town, Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic and Southampton. There is speculation that he is on the move from Southampton in the current transfer window. If there is any news it will appear on the Old Bostonian Association website. 

700th Schuhplattler Gig

The BGS Schuhplattler Gruppe
on BBC's Blue Peter in 2001

Richard Anderson has had a letter published in the Boston Standard marking the 700th gig of the Boston Grammar School Schuhplattlergruppe.

The current troupe has had an amazing year, performing at all major Lincolnshire events including the prestigious Lincolnshire Show (where they were ‘sponsored’ by Lincs FM DJs), the Olympic Torch Relay in Lincoln, the Spalding Flower Parade, Carrington Rally, Sleaford Oktoberfest, numerous Jubilee events, the Boston Standard Centenary Show, and in December they were the only act to be invited to perform in front of Lincoln Cathedral as part of the opening ceremony for Lincoln’s famous Christmas Market. This was the remarkable 700th gig.

Simon Garner on 5 Live Sport

Simon Garner

Simon Garner appeared, talking about Blackburn Rovers on BBC Radio 5 Live's programme 5 Live Sport on 10 January 2013. If you would like to listen, it will remain on iPlayer for seven days (linked from the programme name above). The article including Simon starts at 17 minutes in, with Simon's contribution at 20 minutes 20 seconds.

Football

Simon Garner

Mike Pinner

Danny Butterfield

I have a wide range range of interests and some knowledge in a lot of areas, but we all have to have our limitations. One thing that doesn't interest me much at all, and therefore an area I know relatively little about (certainly compared to many of the people around me) is football.

Barry Spikings

Barry Spikings at the 2000
Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner
where he was special guest

The latest new entry in the OBA Wiki is for Barry Spikings, one of our most famous old boys. Barry has been a Hollywood Producer since the 1970s and has had top jobs in several film companies. In 1978 his film, "The Deer Hunter" won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Academy Status

Boston Grammar School head Paul Marsh
and chair of governors Mark Wearden.

As I mentioned in the report on the Boston Grammar School prize giving, BGS and Boston High School both, separately,  have academy status from the start of 2013.

BGS will be known as Boston Grammar School Selective Academy (if my memory of what headmaster, Paul Marsh, said is correct).

The Boston Standard report about the change is headed "Boston’s grammar schools make ‘fresh start’ as academies". I don't know enough about the matter to hold an opinion about whether or not this is a good thing. The former Chair of the Governors, Barrie Gosling, resigned in August over the issue, but the current Chairman, Mark Wearden, spoke persuasively about it at the prize giving.

Obituaries

It's a bit of a sad topic but the latest new feature of the OBA web site is an option from the "News" menu to access the obituaries on this blog.

It's actually just using "Obituary" tag of the blog. If you want to filter the blog entries by "obituary" or any of the blog's other tags then just click on the tag in the "tag cloud" on the right of this page or in the box under any blog entry.

Craig White - Obituary

Craig White

Craig Adam White of Boston, passed away peacefully at Pilgrim Hospital with his family by his side on 12th December 2012, aged 21 years. Son of Marilyn and Shane, little brother of Alex and boyfriend of Laurie.

It was first thought that Craig died of meningitis. He had tweeted about suffering from constant headaches in the months before his death. It was later confirmed that he had contracted tuberculosis.