A new PTA has been established at Handsworth Grammar School. Watch this space for more information and details of events. Remember that the core aim of the PTA is to support our students and school through fundraising events which will provide additional resources to embellish our student’s education and achievements. Please get involved and join in!
The Year 7 School Finals of the National Foreign Languages Spelling Bee takes place today in Big School. This will secure a place in the Regional Finals for a successful student in the German division. Viel Gluck!
A Languages Ambassador from the University of Aston will be working with Year 10 French GCSE students today in Big School to develop their Language skills and provide an update on studying Languages at University and future career paths.
The Year 9 Indoor Cricket team beat Turves Green in 6.2 overs of a 12 over match. Turves Green scored 62 for 3 off their 12 overs and HGS scored 64 for no loss in 6.2 overs. Well done!
The Under 14 Table Tennis team beat Holte School 3 – 1 in a recent match. Congratulations!
The Year 7 Football team have been invited to a coaching session at Aston Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training ground tomorrow – a great opportunity for our boys.
Handsworth Grammar School is pleased to be re-awarded its’ NACE membership for showing consistent commitment to provision for more able and talented pupils in school. NACE is the National Association for Able Children in Education.
The U16 Badminton team won two and lost one match in their first tournament of the season. Bilal Saleem, Taran Gill, Ettan Korpal and Jaden Sahota all GCSE students played well to secure a 6-4 win against Holte B team as well as beating Broadway. However they lost 6-4 to Holte A team. A Good start!
The Year 7 Indoor Cricket Team played Hamstead Hall and won by 39 runs – HGS scored 91 for 3 and Hamstead Hall made 52 all out.
The Year 9 Indoor Cricket Team also played Hamstead Hall and won by 55 runs – HGS scored 118 with Hamstead Hall making 63 for 5.
Congratulations on two convincing victories
Coaching Session – problem solving and resilience
On the evening of Thursday 29th January 2016, seventeen students from year 12 took part in a coaching session organized by Tim Knappett (Corporate Partnerships Executive, Envision) and Natalie Nakkas (Envision Coordinator), which brought together company directors, project managers and engineers from Intervserve to teach our students a number of essential project management skills.
The session took place at Intervserve offices in Erdington, which served to give the students a window into the world of corporate meetings through which they experienced, however briefly, making decisions about the direction of their own projects and resolved a number of outstanding project management issues, including clash of ideas and office politics. Not only did the students benefit from the advice given freely to them by the highly experienced team from Interserve, they also voiced their own concerns about the challenges they face ahead.
In order to methodically tackle each challenge, the students collaborated with their assigned mentors from Interserve, and under the direction of Tim and Natalie (Envision) managed to identify and discuss possible solutions to the following key challenges:
This highly interactive and engaging session was concluded by Ross Mather (Strategic Development Director) and Tom Martin (Project Engineer) from Interserve introducing the students to their NEW £100 million headquarters, currently under construction near Birmingham International Airport. They also invited our students to join them for a final coaching session on-site at their NEW headquarters on 17th March 2016.
Mr Ahmed
On Tuesday 26th January, 16 students were selected from Handsworth Grammar School to compete in the 11th annual Physics ‘Big Quiz’. This was held at the University of Birmingham, with 90 teams taking part, representing schools from all over the West Midlands and Staffordshire, including many of our selective school ‘rivals’. We arrived at the University at 9:45am with Mr Jones, Head of Science, confident that we could win this year to match the achievement of last year’s HGS teams!
The morning began with a word search round and, after this, we were formally introduced to our hosts and made acquainted with the rules. The most important of these rules was that each team, of which we had separated into four groups of four, had access to a ‘Joker’, which allowed our points to be doubled for that single round. It could be used in any round apart from the final round, which we were told in advance was on ‘The Physics of Einstein’.
There were 3 rounds in the morning session. The first round was some questions on ‘Waves’, followed by a round in which we had to identify an object from its description. Round 3 contained a number of mathematical questions which we had to solve. At the end of each round there was a ‘Spot Question’ for which we had to get the closest answer e.g. what is the mass of the Sun in kilograms? (My group and Vyom’s tied on this question; sadly, he won the chocolates).
We were then treated to a lecture by Professor David Evans from the University on the subject of how Physics has created heavier elements, and what elements are inside our bodies.
There were 3 further rounds in the afternoon. The first one was to identify famous scientists from a picture and/or a description. Amazingly, we guessed four right out of ten! Round 5 was a miscellaneous round; finally there was the round on the ‘specialist’ area of study – The Physics of Einstein.
HGS Team A (Fronz, Gyani, Ali and Edward, all miraculously in Nelson) claimed first place out of the 90 teams. Their prize was a large trophy that the school will return next year and a smaller trophy that the school will keep. The four winners also each received a medal and a telescope. HGS Team B (Godfrey, Anmol, Ismaeel Y and Matthew) came 4th. HGS Teams C and D (Nayan, Sharujan, Bobby, Ismaeel M (me), Farhaan, Vyom, Amritpal and Daanish) won the spot prize about the mass of the Sun and also came joint 5th overall. Everyone was pleased with their achievement and happy to retain the trophy from last year.
Finally, on behalf of all of us who participated, I would like to thank Mr Jones, who recruited us. I would like to wish Mr Jones good luck in finding people in the current Year 8 who will live up to the phenomenal and flabbergasting standard set by our year group and last year’s Year 9!
Ismaeel Mahmood 9A
We will be holding a series of free Easter Booster Classes for Year 11, 12 & 13 Students between Monday 4th April 2016 and Friday 8th April 2016. They will operate between 9am and 3pm – Please see the timetable below and the Letters to Parents area of the website.
Old faces and very much new gathered to take part in the final event of the winter at Handsworth Grammar, to send off the year in a very musical style. Our penultimate day flourished into a magnificent gathering of young, talented musicians, whose music could warm even the coldest of hearts. (And no, it’s not just the under-floor heating; music also emanates a certain aura that warms the soul)
Music was truly the main focus of night. A staple of our concerts; the guitar ensembles played as majestically as ever, under the ever watchful eye of Mr Knight. Dare I say that our classical guitarists have been the best they’ve been for the last few years?
The keyboard ensembles, had such uplifting spirit with Mr Czepiel’s choice of pieces, featuring I’m a believer (a theme from Shrek) for the junior ensemble and ‘Don’t stop me Now’ for the senior ensemble. Truly this was a concert to end of a fantastic first term we all had.
We cannot forget the orchestra – with Mr Ward at helm, once again conducting – who played with spirit, embracing their inner Englishmen and playing Pomp and Circumstance marches, a well-known theme by Edward Elgar. The orchestra was not the only thing for Mr Ward to conduct however; the debut of this year’s Choir, filled with the first appearance of many Year 7’s. Mr Ward was certainly rapturous following their performance of Happy, having embraced Christmas with ‘Away in a Manger’ moments before.
The raw talent of our musicians radiated with our ‘stand-alone’ acts. The likes of two Renaissance pieces from the guitars, a trio by Dowland played by the Frater twins and Mr Knight, and a Spanish piece played by Brandon Masih. Our piano solos took for a far more 20th century approach, Camara Talbert playing a piece by Norton and Khanh Pham with a vicious piece by W. Carroll. We also had an array of woodwind pieces played, with the Tabla being represented by a solo and trio. The debut of the harp in the concert, played by Lydia Liburd, only just shows how much talent we have to show during our concerts.
Our concert may be great, but it is nothing without the teachers that make it happen. Thank you to Mr Ward, head of Music, for putting together the program and being there throughout rehearsals, ensuring with the It technicians that only the best sound is produced. Thanks to Ms Vaughan, who was as equally helpful in preparing the concert and without her help, much of the work would not be possible. It is also right to thank our Music teachers; Mr Knight; Mr Czepiel; Ms Strudwick; Mrs Buxton and Mr Matharu: without their countless hours of work, we wouldn’t have a concert to put on. I must thank each performer, whose talents have entertained many, even if Jingle bells continues the long line of finales where they just end up laughing out of exhaustion.
Last but not least, thanks to Mr Conway for being our compere once again, along with every staff member who had helped over the course of the day, making our preparations far better to cope with.
Brandon Masih 10 Henry
