Yesterday, Monday 19th May, HGS 6th formers visited London for a day of culture, university preparation and legal knowledge with a visit to KCL Law. They distinguished themselves with interesting questions and the excellent way they carried themselves around the capital. Well done to all students involved!
Congratulations to Nicholas Blisset-Cousins, 11G, on being selected to represent the England Under 18 River and Bank Fly Fishing team at the 22nd World Youth Fly Fishing Championships. The World Championships will be held in Idaho, USA in July. Nicholas is one of only six fly fishers from across the country to be selected and this will be the first time in over a decade that a team from England has participated in the World Championships. We are very proud of Nicholas’ achievement and it is testament to his passion and dedication to the sport. Well done Nicholas!
The England Youth Fly Fishing Team receives most of their funding through donations and they have to raise their own funds to be able to cover the cost of travel to the Championships, If you would like to make a contribution to them, their Go Fund Me page is here: https://gofund.me/9742234e
Congratulations to L’hobibearfoot!
Winners of the inaugural Re-Connect Cup, getting young people off their screens, physically active and reconnecting with each other.
On Friday the 4th of April, years 10 and 12 students from HGS were pleased to host students from KE Aston and KEHG as well as our esteemed guest Lord Jeff Rooker. Please see below for a write up of the event from Sarujan Kasinthan (10G) and his thoughts on the visit.
On Friday, I was fortunate enough to attend the talk that Lord Jeff Rooker presented on the United Kingdom’s Democratic System. In this, he explained the role of Lords as well as other significant governing officials such as Bishops. After this, he elaborated on the structure of the parliament itself by explaining the various categories of people such as the Lord Speaker, House of Lords and the House of Commons with their respective duties.
After covering the fundamentals of the political system, he gave us a walkthrough of how to become a Lord for those who were interested in a career path such as his. His advice was to first get a job that has a meaningful impact on society, and he used an ‘army sergeant’ as an example as these types of professions are more likely to become Lords than normal jobs. This is because the Lords are often appointed for their entire lifetimes so applications must stand out to them if you want to have a chance however, they are more likely to be selected by the Lords Internally than compared to applying to be one. The main topic of the talk was arguably the epitome of being a Lord. SCRUTINY. Lords are meant to scrutinise government legislation and hold them to account. Jeff Rooker went through the different tiers of scrutiny and that this was perhaps the primary role of a Lord, and he also mentioned that they can make amendments to proposed laws or ‘bills’ as they were called.
When it came to the questions, on one of his proposals, he explained the case where he insisted that the government should add folic acid to flour to prevent neural defects in babies. This is because the main cause of this disorder was a lack of folate within the mother’s diet that prevented the neural tube from closing, and therefore permanent damage is inflicted upon the baby’s body. I could tell he was very compassionate towards the babies who were born disabled and had defects and somewhat provoked as he told us that the folic acid legislation had still not been implemented after 3 months of the consultation in which they had agreed to do it. In fact, in one of his interviews representing the House of Lords, he described it as being ‘criminal’ because it was like they had the cure but were not doing anything about it.
In conclusion, I believe that Lord Jeff Rooker’s talk was very intriguing because of the anecdotes and advice he gave us on that day, that had given me an insight of the role and purpose of being a Lord and what responsibilities it carried to its name. The campaigning, scrutiny and consideration is just some of many qualities a good Lord should possess. I am very grateful to be able to witness Lord Rooker’s Talk as up until this point I have only seen Lord’s debate on the news but on Friday I got to witness one in person. It has been a truly inspirational experience.
Economics and Business students from HGS were exited to welcome visiting students from KEHG and Fraser West from the Bank of England on Thursday 3rd of April. Please see below for Jaskaran Virdi’s (10H) account of the event:
The Bank of England talk was very intriguing and helped us gain a deep understanding of what the Bank of England does. Sixth formers from Handsworth Grammar and other schools learnt about how interest rate decisions are made, and about the time lag in interest rates taking effect. Whilst the talk had a focus on the Financial Policy Committee, we were also told about other committees such as the Monetary Policy Committee. The economist went into a lot of depth and detail when talking about these committees, and kept the talk interactive by asking us questions, though the majority of us were initially hesitant to speak up. We also travelled back in history, learning about the 2008 financial crash (which resulted in the creation of the FPC), and were shown informative line graphs outlining the change in interest rates over time. We noticed that interest rates appeared to be lower after 2008 in a bid to revive stagnant economic growth. The economist also briefly talked about the spike in interest rates since 2022 due to factors such as the war in Ukraine and COVID-19. We were briefed on the dangers of uncontrollable inflation, with references to Germany during the Great Depression and the situation in Zimbabwe, where currency has become worthless. At the end, we had the opportunity to ask questions about pretty much anything related to the Bank of England, everything from future careers to whether fixed or floating exchange rates were better. Overall, the talk was wonderful and captivating and presented us with new information that will help us in our studies.
Between the 2nd and 4th April a total of 82 students headed to the Shropshire Hills for their practice expeditions, with 61 Year 9 students taking their Bronze Awards and 21 Year 10s involved with Silver.
Although cold at night, students were fortunate to experience some fantastic walking weather to enjoy the scenery of the Long Mynd, the Stiperstones and Carding Mill Valley. They cooked hot meals for themselves at one (Bronze) or both (Silver) of the campsites, put up their own tents, navigated successfully (in most cases!) and carried all of their equipment and food for 2 (Bronze) or 3 (Silver) days. Many were also responsible for organising their own train transport to and from Church Stretton train station.
The experience prepared the students well for their assessed expeditions which will take place in May. Fingers are crossed that weather conditions are as favourable then. The one group who were spotted enjoying ice cream in a local café will have to remember that such deviation from the rules would prove very costly in May!
Year 12’s engaged very well with our Careers-focused Enrichment Day yesterday. Advice was shared and support given about early entry applications to UCAS, apprenticeships, and admissions tests for the most competitive courses. Our budding medics also engaged in work experience with Health Hack; analysing Birmingham’s high infant mortality rate through the lens of public health.
