On Friday 25th September 2026, Year 7 students took part in the Handsworth Grammar School Annual Sponsored Walk. This fundraising event provides a fantastic opportunity for pupils to demonstrate our CARES values in action while supporting worthwhile causes within the local community.
For more than a decade, the Sponsored Walk has been a proud HGS tradition, encouraging students to show House Spirit, work together, and make a positive contribution beyond the classroom. The event helps pupils develop a range of valuable life skills, including communication, confidence, teamwork, resilience, leadership, responsibility, empathy, and community awareness.
This year’s walk was a tremendous success. All five houses proudly showcased their colours and school spirit, creating a vibrant and positive atmosphere throughout the day. Students went above and beyond in representing their houses, with handmade signs and banners, colourful hats, creative face paint, and enthusiastic chants all on display.
The behaviour and conduct of the boys drew praise not only from staff but also from members of the local community. Their respect, positivity, and enthusiasm left a lasting impression, with two passers-by so inspired by the event that they made donations on the spot.
Most importantly, the Sponsored Walk allowed students to raise funds for local charities and make a real difference to those in need. The event was a wonderful example of our Year 7 students embracing the values of Handsworth Grammar School while representing the school with pride.
We would like to thank all students, staff, parents, and sponsors for their support in making this year’s Sponsored Walk such a memorable and successful event.
Mr Hussain
I took part in the sponsored walk to help raise funds for British Red Cross and British heart foundation. The money was raised to help people affected by heart circulatory conditions, lifesaving research and for people in crisis. This was a very special sponsored walk for me as my uncles 22weeks old baby passed away due to a serious heart condition where the left side of the heart was not fully developed. Since me and my family experienced this pain, I wanted to raise funds to make sure no one suffers the same fate.
I asked our Tamil community and family to help me raise funds, I showed them my banner and mentioned how many people suffer due to crisis such as earthquake, wars, emergencies and the number one killer cardiovascular diseases. My community kindly offered to support me through this journey by providing funds for people in difficult times, this showed me that there are many kind human beings around us.
Taking part in this Sponsored walk was very meaningful experience for me. It made me feel proud of myself and have a greater purpose in my life. It showed me that helping people makes me very happy and I am grateful that I was able to do this event. The walk made me realise that even a small walk can make such a huge difference in people’s life. I enjoyed walking knowing that the funds will make a contribution in many people’s lives.
Overall Fundraising charity is very important, even if you can’t make a huge contribution towards the fund, as long as you take part in the sponsored walk, many people will benefit from it. It made me feel great, I don’t have words that could describe the happiness and feelings inside me. For me the main purpose was to do something positive for the people who may be experiencing the hardest moments of their life’s. No one should go through what I went through.
Arjunan (7A)
On Friday 25th September, 2026, my whole year group at King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys did a super exciting sponsored walk around Handsworth Park. If you haven’t done one before, a sponsored walk is basically a fun challenge where you walk a big distance, and your family and friends give money to a brilliant charity to cheer you on. We all took part because we wanted to raise lots of money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Islamic Relief and Charity for Africa to help poorly children get better and give charity to help with poverty, which is exactly what our school is all about.
The walk was the perfect chance to show our school’s HGS CARES values, which stand for Community, Aspiration, Respect, Endeavour, and Service.
To get ready, my friends and I stayed behind at lunchtime to make a massive, colourful poster to tell everyone about the event. On the poster we used bright markers, huge block letters, and signatures from our form group to help it stand out for 7 William House. Working on it together was so much fun and really showed our team Community spirit!
Getting the sponsor money ready took plenty of Endeavour (that’s our school word for hard work). I took my sponsorship form around to my family members. I explained how the money would help the children at the hospital and to help with poverty and everyone was incredibly kind and donated generously. Once I collected all the cash, I made sure to hand the money in safely to my form tutor (Miss Sohal), so it could be sent off to the hospital. Collecting these donations felt great, because it was our way of showing Service by thinking about others before ourselves.
The actual day of the walk was brilliant! My most enjoyable part of the sponsored walk was the enthusiasm of holding the sign with my friends and cheering on. The atmosphere was buzzing with chatting and happy energy between us all. Walking the long route was a proper workout, but we all showed Respect by looking out for each other and respecting the public. Completing the sponsored walk together was the best feeling ever. It felt absolutely amazing to know that our big team effort is going to make a massive difference for Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the poor people around the world.
Our school sponsored walk for Birmingham Children’s hospital, Islamic Relief and Charity of Africa was a powerful reflection of Aspiration. Our shared aspiration is to bring hope, better resources and first-class medical care to the brave young children as patients at the hospital. Also, to eradicate the causes of poverty, ensuring we helping the poor to rebuild their lives.
I am proud to be part of the King Edwards VI Handsworth Grammar School Sponsored Walk and I hope as a year 7 cohort, we have proved that aiming high and working together will create a lasting, life-changing impact for children and families facing their toughest battles in life.
Hope you have enjoyed reading my article.
Rayaan (7W)
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