On Friday 20th January 2017, we were very pleased to welcome back Dr Maria Pavlidou, from the University of Birmingham’s Physics Department. Dr Pavlidou gave two highly informative and entertaining talks to Year 9 Physics sets about extremes of temperature. The talks included many demonstrations with the ever-popular liquid nitrogen.
Mr Jones
Please click here to see the recent Ofsted Inspection Report for HGS. HGS was graded as Outstanding in every category:
Overall effectiveness: Outstanding
Effectiveness of leadership and management: Outstanding
Quality of teaching, learning and assessment: Outstanding
Personal development, behaviour and welfare: Outstanding
Outcomes for pupils: Outstanding
16 to 19 study programmes: Outstanding
Mindfulness and Wellbeing are increasingly important facets of modern life with all its associated strains, stresses and pressure. The article below gives a little advice and guidance which might prove useful to us all.
Mindfulness: some thoughts
Mindfulness is about paying deliberate attention to what’s happening to your mind and body in the present time, not worrying about what you did ‘wrong’ yesterday.
When you practise mindfulness, and become fully aware of the present and the sensations around you, you wake up from auto-pilot mode and can fully cherish life. Your thoughts will become calmer, too. Practising mindfulness can help you appreciate the best bits of life.
“Mindfulness is about observation without criticism; being compassionate with yourself,” says Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre and author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World. “When unhappiness or stress hover overhead, rather than taking it all personally, you learn to treat them as if they were black clouds in the sky, and to observe them with friendly curiosity as they drift past. In essence, mindfulness allows you to catch negative thought patterns before they tip you into a downward spiral. It begins the process of putting you back in control of your life.”
Mindfulness can enable us to really enjoy the joyful moments of life which we can so easily miss.
It’s really important to take care of yourself.
We can practise mindfulness by simply sitting still and becoming aware of ourselves.
The brain can act like Velcro for negative experiences, but Teflon for positive ones. This negativity bias may have helped humans survive, but when it comes to modern life we need to consciously rebalance. When you feel stressed and anxious, try to press the pause button and consciously calm yourself.
Mindfulness doesn’t stop stress, but it helps you catch it and settle yourself.
On the afternoon of January 18th 2017, another cohort of our year 12 students went to Handsworth Association of Schools Conference Centre, adjacent to Welford Primary School, to be trained as ‘Reading Volunteers’. The workshop entailed them working in groups to practice the best methodologies to support year 1 and 2 students with their reading skills. All fifteen students engaged in a variety of activities to share ideas and build their self-confidence. A number of case studies involving a teacher supporting a child with reading a book were looked at and students mapped out the best strategies to pitch their support at an appropriate level to the children.
This workshop was organised to help prepare our students to go out (in pairs) to an assigned primary school, every Wednesday afternoon, and support a minimum of 4 children with their reading skills. Through this programme, not only do our students give back to their community, they also learn new life-long skills such as how to speak to a child, how to teach a new skill to a child, patience, perseverance and many more.
Mr Ahmed
Please click on the link below to read an article which was published in the DATA Magazine recently which features innovative work undertaken at HGS by Ms Hill. The HGS D&T team are at the forefront of Innovating D&T: West Midlands.
Around 70 students descended upon the Ladywood Arc on the 15th December 2016 for HGS’s Annual Winter Concert. The winter concert provides an exciting opportunity for our very talented musicians to perform in one of our cities best venues. This year was particularly memorable for it was our 5th year using the venue.
Our concerts at HGS always provide a vast array of different musical genres from the classical and romantic era’s all the way up to the modern genres we are used to today. The winter concert is no exception. Festive music found its way into the programme with the school Orchestra performing ‘Walking in the Air’ from the Snowman, we heard a performance of ‘sleigh ride’ from our Woodwind Ensemble as well as tutti renditions of Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, which provide the audience with an opportunity to participate in the concert. Film Music is also quite popular at our concerts with the Senior Keyboard Ensemble performing ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and our Woodwind Quartet playing ‘Somewhere in my Memory’ from Home Alone. In addition there were several solos and duets throughout the night. These included Balkaar Bhopal playing the Waltz in C sharp minor by Chopin, Isaac Minto playing Mr Benn by D.Lamont on the Clarinet with Karl and Robert Frater playing Andate by Antonio Vivaldi on the Guitar. Our current Young Musician of the Year Josef Feiven played Movements I and II of the Camille Saint-Seans Morceau De Concert for Horn and Piano.
The concert was a fantastic celebration of the musicians we are fortunate to have at Handsworth Grammar School and I hope that you will be able to attend the Instrumental Progress Evening on Thursday 16th March 2017, HGS’s Young Musician of the Year on Thursday 4th May 2017 and the Summer Concert (13th July).
Handsworth Grammar School is extremely excited to be celebrating the Chinese New Year, on Tuesday 31st January. This is a great opportunity for students and staff alike to discover a new culture, and to embrace the diversity of our world. This event was brought to life by the students through the School Council, of which I have the privilege to oversee. It is always a pleasure to see these ideas come into reality. I hope to see everyone in the canteen, enjoying the delicious Chinese food being served. On behalf of the School Council and Senior Prefect Team, I’d like to wish you a happy Chinese new year!
Best regards,
Seth Griffiths, Chair of the School Council.
In the last few days two very good articles on the use of Social Media have been published on the BBC Education website. Please see the links below and take some time to read them carefully as all our children are impacted to a greater or lesser extent by Social Media and the wider Internet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38508888
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38529437
Should there be the need to close the School due to bad weather a notice will be posted on the Website, Facebook and Twitter by 6 am and a text message will be sent to both Staff and Parents. Please be vigilant and patient.
