BRIDGE WORK Here it is! The Bridge 2018! The first magazine of King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys. This is the third name that the school has had in its long history. When it first opened back in 1862 it was The Bridge Trust School. This name was changed to Handsworth Grammar School in 1890 when we ceased to be responsible for any bridge repairs! No bridge repairs any more but we do have new look DT and science classrooms and are continuing to refurbish and update many areas of the school. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this year’s Bridge. A really big thank you to Pip for contributing a very philosophical feature on his final year at university and to Gurdeep for finding time in his busy Parisian schedule to write a most encouraging piece on opportunities afforded by study at Oxford. Thank you to Tukeer for taking up the old boys’ baton and keeping us informed about his studies and all his other accomplishments. Thank you to my form, 10A, for chasing up articles, writing articles and helping me with my IT skills. Lastly thank you to ICT for giving me a laptop with Windows 10 – much faster!! Enjoy! Ms Brown WELCOME ...FROM THE HEADMASTER Yet again and as with our website the 2018 edition of The Bridge Magazine is packed with wonderful articles, features, reports and stories of success, achievement and enjoyment. This is what HGS is truly about and it makes one very proud to be the Head of such a great institution. We are also an institution which has maintained the best of our traditions and heritage whilst embracing the new educational landscape. To that end we converted to Academy status, joined the King Edward VI Academy Trust Birmingham and the King Edward VI Foundation on 1st September 2017. This is enabling us to further develop our Outreach work and Enrichment so that we are even more of a force for good in our local community as well as across Birmingham and the surrounding area. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms Elaine Brown and Mr Adam Kilcullen as well as Rebecca England and Gus MacDonald at Ammac Design for all their expertise and support in bringing this publication to print. Haec Olim Meminisse Iuvabit. Dr Simon Bird, Headmaster 2