THINKING AHEAD YEAR 11 VISIT OXFORD FOR A DAY FOCUSING ON HUMANITIES On 28th November a group of Year 11 students accompanied by Mrs Harvey and Mr Kafai visited Keble College, Oxford in order to take part in a day focusing on the wealth of humanities subjects offered by Oxford University, as well as the career prospects that studying these subjects can provide. The afternoon included a visit to the renowned Ashmolean Museum where our students were able to get hands-on with some of the exhibits in their vast collection. The visit to Keble kicked off with a guided tour of the College and the chance to quiz some current university students on their experiences of studying at Oxford. What shone through in their answers was how well supported they feel in their academic work at Oxford and how easy it had been to settle into the College and make friends. All of them were positive in their choice and our HGS students were both inspired as well as relieved at their normality – the state of the nightlife in Oxford formed an interesting part of the discussion. The second part of our visit was a fascinating lecture where we were able to listen to some of the University academics who are working, researching and making important discoveries in humanities subjects. Of particular interest was Professor Tom Higham who heads up the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, and whose research mixing science and archaeology has rewritten current thinking on the Neanderthal-Homo Sapiens timeline. Professor Higham was keen to explain that his ground- breaking research stemmed from his passion for his subject, and he encouraged all students to pursue a degree in a subject they find fascinating. After a lunch in Keble’s dining hall, under the gaze of the College’s alumni, we headed to the Ashmolean Museum where our students were encouraged to become researchers themselves for the afternoon. They were given strange objects and asked to deduce information about them from asking questions and making hypotheses. The standard of their work was excellent and they were able to guess the tea bricks from China and the scrigil body scraper from Ancient Rome. The museum staff running this event congratulated our students on their perception and enthusiasm as well as their excellent behaviour. The students (and staff) returned home inspired and enthused, and more than ready to harness our inner geeks! Mrs Harvey GIFTED&TALENTED INTERMEDIATE MATHS CHALLENGE RESULTS Our Year 9 and Year 10 Mathematicians made an excellent showing again in the recent Intermediate Maths Challenge. HGS students achieved nine Gold Certificates, 21 Silver certificates and 19 Bronze certificates with six students qualifying for the next round. This is a wonderful achievement. YEAR 9 Rajan Aulakh and Assad Jaffari qualified for the next round and achieved Gold certificates. There were four Silver and seven Bronze certificates awarded to HGS students. YEAR 10 Pavanjot Dhillon, Hammad Butt, Jasbinde Singh and Yusuf Sakhawat all qualified for the next round and were awarded Gold Certificates. Hubert Walczak, Muzaffar Haqqani and Jason Bhatti also achieved Gold Certificates. There were 17 Silver and 12 Bronze certificates awarded to HGS students. Congratulations to all involved. 42