Young Writers Competition – Success
Handsworth Grammar School have been entering the Young Writers Mini Saga competition for a number of years now. This year’s theme, “Wonderland”, included 40 entries ranging from speculative fiction to romanticism.
The competition organisers were impressed by the entries from Handsworth Grammar School, commenting on the way in which the writing ‘has certainly captured the young writers’ imaginations, from changing history and alien encounters to fantasy lands, we enjoyed reading every entry we received’. The English Department is delighted that 37 out of 40 entries received have been published in an anthology produced by the organisers.
We would like to congratulate and recognise the achievement of the following year 7 students:
| Dawud Ali | Elyas Ibrahim | Jawwad Ahmed | Tallaal Sadiq | Ayman Javaid |
| Rahim Ali | Abubaker Khan | Yusuf Saghir | Mohit Naphray | Vincent Coumarasamy |
| Haaris Mahmood | Callum Mughal | Karanjit Virdi | Adam Khan | Robert Callaghan |
| Alex Cummings | Adam Khan (7A) | Rohan Bagga | Ashkhan Larmour | Cyril Kumar |
| Parth Patel | Armaan Hussain | Vivek Verma | Mohammed Idres | Muhammad –Sulaimman Ahmad |
| Harry Poobalasingham | Rehan Mahmood | Mustafa Muhammed | Mohammed Vi-Haq | Aron Kang |
| Jinyang Zhang | Harveer Greual | Ubaid Khan | Zakir Islam | Farhaan Chodhury |
| Junaid Uddin | Kaamil Mehboob |
A huge well done to all students – keep writing!
English Department
German Spelling Bee Success
Ryan Ahmed 7N and Adam Mohammed 7A have gone through to the National Finals of the German Spelling Bee. Congratulations!
Football Success
The Year 7 Football team beat St John Wall 9-0 in the Aston League last night and next play George Dixon tonight to go top of the League. Well done!
Arden Academy
Handsworth Grammar School’s Guitar Quartet (Seth Griffiths, Karl Frater, Robert Frater and Brandon Masih) performed at a concert in Solihull with Harmonie. Harmonie are a concert band based in Solihull and directed by the Solihull Music Service woodwind teacher Chris Davies. The Quartet was given two 10-minute slots in both halves of the concert and performed a range of works over a 400-year period. They boys played confidently and were warmly received by the audience and band.
Mr. Ward
Tate Modern Art Gallery Visit
A group of 14 year 12 students visited the Tate Modern Gallery in London on Wednesday 15th March accompanied by Mr Ali and Mr Conway.
They were able to take part in a discussion on the migrant crisis in the Greek island of Lesbos in the Mediterranean, and saw the impact that this crisis is having on the migrants and the people of the island.
Students were then able to view works by some of the most famous artists in the world including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Jackson Pollock.
On a beautiful London day, the students were also able to see at first hand the spectacular Millennium Bridge, designed by former Handsworth Grammar School pupil, Ken Shuttleworth.
Warwick Castle Science Fair
On Friday 24th March, 30 students from Year 8 had been invited to attend a Science and History trip to Warwick Castle. As well as the Science Fair, we had the opportunity to explore the Castle and learn about its history.
We departed after registration on two minibuses. It was a fairly long journey, so we all entertained ourselves by talking, battling in arenas on Clash Royale and, most of all, snatching each other’s parcels on Snatch.
After a short time exploring the Fair on our own, we met up to hear a talk about rockets and saw model ones being made, tested and launched. After it had finished, we walked past a beautiful garden in the Castle grounds and then entered a maze that took us through different stages of history from the Vikings to World War II. It was easy to get lost though!
We then went through the gates of the Castle and climbed a set of spiral stairs to different heights before seeing a wonderful view of the place from right at the top! Unfortunately, one person in my class wouldn’t look down because he was scared. We also explored the inside of the Castle, looking at portraits, armour and models of past monarchs. Mrs Hartt explained about the paintings and the rooms we visited.
Once the tour was finished and we’d spent all of our money at the gift shop, we watched a fascinating ‘Birds of Prey’ show and then had another 50 minutes to explore the Science Fair. My group and I, after seeing all the different stalls, started popping each other’s balloons and trying to let them fly into the air (cough, cough Troy!).
On behalf of the 29 other students and I, I would like to thank Mrs Hartt, Mr Mohsin and Mr Jones for making this trip possible. I would highly recommend this trip to everyone as it’s a trip I won’t forget for a long time.
Rohan Minhas
Cherry Orchard Outreach Visit
On Wednesday 15 March 10 Year 8 students visited Cherry Orchard School once more to support learning in Science lessons. Rishi Patel writes: “We taught two Year 5 classes about how to get tomatoes down a mountain using metre rules, weights and newton meters. We taught them what newton meters are, how to use them and what they measure. We showed them how many newtons everyday objects weighed, from pencil cases to pens – we weighed anything we could get our hands on. We then moved onto trying to balance a metre rule with different amounts of weights on either side (it wasn’t as easy as it sounds). We then looked at pulleys and how they work, with Mr Alishah. Both classes worked very well and listened to our and Miss Saleem’s instructions very carefully. The trip was an amazing and enjoyable experience and I would love to have this opportunity once again. I would like to thank Mr Jones and Miss Saleem for selecting me to go on this trip; it was a total success and I hope the Year 5 classes have learnt something new”.
The ‘Big Bang’ Science Fair
On the 16th and 17th of March 2017 two groups of thirty Year 7 students went to the NEC in Birmingham to visit the ‘Big Bang’ Science Fair. Cyril Kumar writes ‘We listened to a talk by Staff from Oxford University; they talked mainly about the digestive system and did fun activities with us. After this we had some time to explore the Fair in groups; there were different activities such as: the structure of an ear, sound, virtual realities, robots and quizzes. For the quizzes we were awarded prizes and a sticker which you had to collect to enter a competition. We watched another lecture which was about robots; we were told how robots are made and how they have, and will be, developed’.
