b'PRIZEGIVINGPrizegiving ADDRESS 2021Alongside all the staff at HGS, who have workedCentre. We are fortunate to have a wonderful blend hard over the last couple of weeks to ensureof the old and the new on our site. Indeed, this year that our school is ready for a new term, I want towe will be celebrating our 160th anniversary, and it formally welcome you all to Prizegiving 2021. It isshould not be forgotten that HGS is Birminghams great to be backalbeit in a scaled-back way. oldest grammar school. But dig deeper, and Im referring to something far more cerebral than that.Although we have rightly relaxed COVID restrictions around the site in terms of no longer havingStones and cement, lime and mortar act as a bubbles, we are still very conscious that your livesmould to the understanding of our place in history. at school will not be like the days you experiencedBut its how we mould ourselves, as people, before the pandemic. Your well-being and healthas individuals, which ultimately moulds our are central to our plans for this year and we stillsurroundings and, in turn, how we mould each have some precautions in place that will be familiarother.to many of you.You are all HGS students. What does that mean? Last year was at times a very strange experience.It means that you are expected to work extremely We were surrounded by Covid information signs,hard. Your teachers and I will never accept one-way signs and floor markings; had to navigatemediocrity. We will never be satisfied with the changing government advice; had to managesatisfactory. It means that we expect you to have the move away from exams to Teacher Assesseda love of learning, to be inquisitive, to be positive. Grades; were required to wear masks; and hadBut most importantly, in addition to hard work and numerous restrictions on socialising. However,determination to achieve exceptional academic as I worked alongside some quite remarkableresults, it rests on five values. You will be constantly colleagues in the thick of it, I kept reminding youreminded of these in the months and years ahead. (and myself for that matter) of a mantra that I haveYoull find them on posters, forming part of your used a few times in the past but which somehowlearning and the House System, and they will serve resonates so strongly with the past twenty or soas a foundation for how we believe you need to live months. your life at school, and how you subsequently live your life when you leave:What I explained was simple: success in life is measured not by how high you fly, but by how wellCommunity, Aspiration,you bounce. Its about how well you come back from adversity and upset, and how you dont everRespect, Endeavour, Service.let the fear of failure stand in your way. HGS CARES.HGS and our wider community of the King EdwardIf you embrace these values, if you show ambition VI Foundation and you, the students within it, havein everything you do, whether it is in geography this last year bounced back with immeasurableor football, if you keep resilient and determined boldness and flair. You have collectively provedwhatever challenges life throws at you, if youre to be the most adaptable and resilient of people,humble and can walk with princes and paupers, impressing your teachers at every turn with yourif you show love and care and kindness in all your constant determination and can-do attitude. I havedealings, and if you can really support others in previously said that we shape our surroundings,their darkest of moments by showing compassion and then our surroundings shape us. Clearly, I wasin your words and your actions, you will not just in part referring to the buildings in which we studysimply be a fine young person, you will be a role and learn, be that Big School or the Sixth Formmodel to othersa true Handsworth Grammar 18'