Every year students from year 7 to year 12 take part in the Oxford University Computational thinking challenge. Students from 50 countries take part in this challenge which is designed to challenge students and get them to focus on logical and computational thinking. This year has been a huge success, with over 100 students scoring in the top 10%. A first at HGS! Those who have scored in the top 10% across the country are invited to the Oxford University computing Challenge. These students get the chance to develop their skills further and produce programmed solutions to computational thinking problems.

A massive shout out to Ihsan Ermis Yr7, Yazan Kafienah Yr8, George Lin & Ben Marra Yr9, Kaelen Van Vliet Yr10 and Arshjeet Nagi Yr12 for achieving the highest score in their year groups. A special mention to 7 Nelson who occupied the top 5 spots in year 7. Well done and good luck in the next stage!

Mr T Ahmed

I leant a series of new things during this trip. First, we had a talk with a Mondelez cooperative who talked to us about the importance of technology in marketing, product selling and in businesses such as Cadbury. We were told about how products are aimed at different ages hence advertising would be changed to suit the target audience. I learnt about how companies use a variety of strategies to sell their products. This was a very informative session and I enjoyed this.

After this, we did a lot of things. We had the chance to write our names in chocolate which got quite messy! We also took a trip down memory lane, learning how the Cadbury business has developed over the years. Finally, we got to experience the 4D cinema which was exciting, the immersive technology is brilliant.

Did you know 5.5 million chocolates are produced every day and that Dairy Milk is the number 1 most liked chocolate in the UK? Also, the purple colour used in Cadbury’s packaging was allegedly a tribute to Queen Victoria and now it has been used for more than 100 years!

Overall, I had a great time and enjoyed the visit.

By Daniel Alloh

On Thursday 1st December the music department commenced the school’s festive celebrations with the Winter Concert at St. Mary’s Church, Handsworth. Our first concert there was back in 2019. We returned last year to film students for our Winter Concert recording rather than hold an in-person event, so it had been 3 years since we had last held a concert there with an audience.

It was wonderful to see a packed church with over 90 students performing. The concert started with the Lower School choir under the direction of Mrs. Ward, who joined us in September 2022. The other ensembles performing that night were the Senior Keyboard Ensemble, String Quartet, String Ensemble, School Orchestra, Brass Ensemble, Lower School Woodwind Ensemble and Junior Guitar Ensemble. The programme was peppered with a range of solos and duets from students in all years. We enjoyed solo performances from Angus Huang (Classical Guitar), Jinjie Lin (Classical Guitar), Asher Jordan (Piano), Maximus Rueff (Trumpet), Manav Talwar (Violin), Hardev Manku (Piano), Raahil Junaid (Piano), Arjun Sond (Classical Guitar) and Daniel Earle (Euphonium). The pianists had the privilege of performing on an 8-foot Steinway Concert Grand Piano which, when new, cost over £150,000!

The success of this event is only possible because of the support of the students, parents, music staff and other school staff. To these people ‘thank you!’.

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