Four of our highest achieving Year 13 A Level Chemists were recent participators in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemistry Olympiad.

The Chemistry Olympiad is a nationwide competition, testing the best and brightest young Chemists. The competition is based on real world Chemistry problems and can often stimulate much debate, raising awareness of what Chemistry is all about. It provides a good opportunity to develop some of the skills required for study at University and beyond. Our four budding Chemical Engineers came out with their heads held high; (from left to right) Mohammed Atteq Ullah and Donte Nembhard both achieved a Silver Award. Dhanish Amin and Manish Bains both achieved a Bronze award.

Congratulations to all four boys.

Mr M Mohsin

Eight of our Year 12 students have been selected to take part in a week long residential programme at the University of Birmingham in August. The students had to apply some months ago, and had to meet certain academic and social criteria.

We are delighted that: Gursimrat Kaur, Ikram Mohamed, Ismahan Mohamed, Jakir Hussain, Mozomol Hoque, Nurjana Begum, Rezwana Begum and Safa Qayaad have all been accepted onto the prestigious Academic Enrichment Programme. We are certain that they will have a most enjoyable experience at the University, living and studying like a student for a week in August along with other young people from the West Midlands.

Last year we had seventeen students from HGS who won places at the University of Birmingham to study a variety of courses, and a number of them had successfully completed the Academic Enrichment Programme, the previous summer.

Mr Conway

On Friday 27th March 2015 we arrived at school ready for our skiing trip to Zell am See, Austria. Many pupils going on the trip had mixed emotions: we were excited but also a little nervous. At around 2pm the coach arrived and, after putting our luggage onto the coach and finding a seat, we began our journey.

The journey was long and tiring but finally we arrived at the port of Dover and boarded the ferry. In small groups we had great fun exploring it; everyone seemed to particularly enjoy the duty free shop! Upon arrival at Calais, France, we set off again for the long drive through France to Austria. Everyone was drained but, surprisingly, everybody seemed to cope extremely well and settled down to sleep, some managing 10 hours. In the morning we stopped at a service station where we were able to have some breakfast, clean our teeth and have a wash. By this time excitement levels were rising as we were approaching Austria.

When we approached our resort everyone could not help but admire the amazing views of the snowy mountains in front of our eyes. Finally, we arrived at the hotel and all gave a huge sigh of relief as we were glad to get sight of our new home for the week. After being shown to our rooms and unpacking we had dinner in the hotel at 6.30 p.m. We then had to go to get our skis and boots fitted ready for the next day of skiing. It was usual to have activities in the evening, but on the first night we were all just too tired so we played pool, table tennis and table football in the games room and had an early night. We all slept really well.

Our first day’s skiing dawned. We woke up at around 7.00 a.m., eagerly put on our ski gear and had breakfast. Every day we had to be on the coach by 8.30a.m. So that we were ready to begin skiing on the mountain at 9.30 a.m. Mr Jones and Mr Bird warned us to take care of our lift passes and EHIC cards. Each day we had to go up in the gondola lift to meet our ski instructors and then begin our skiing for the day. Time just flew by when we were skiing and, before you knew it, it was time for lunch. After lunch we then had the whole afternoon skiing around all different slopes until 2:30 p.m. Skiing was such brilliant fun, with plenty of laughter and falls. Everyone has tales to tell about their fabulous runs, spectacular falls and amazing jumps!

Each evening, after dinner, we joined in with the other school group in the hotel for a ‘Moose Ceremony’, in which an award was given to the person who had done the silliest thing that day. On one day, it surprised no one that the candidate for the ‘Moose’ Award was Mr Jones. That day, after completing a punishing black run, he and Mr Bird were on an easy, empty blue run. However Mr Jones fell and then blamed Mr Bird for going “out of sight”. Less than 100 meters further on Mr Jones fell again; this time this time he claimed that his “goggles had fogged up” and he “couldn’t see a thing”! We believe you Mr Jones!
Every evening back at the hotel there was an organised activity between 7.30 and 9.00. One night it was Austrian bowling, another night it was swimming. In my opinion the best activities were “Pizza night” and exploring the town of Zell am See.

Our last day dawned. We were all very sad to go home. Leaving Zell am See on the Friday at about 6.00 p.m. we had to face the long journey home, which again was tiring. However, time passed quickly and we had fun talking about the memories we had created and the new friendships forged over the last week. Hopefully, we will never forget these.
We have to thank both of our teachers – Mr Bird and Mr Jones – who came with us as it wouldn´t have been possible without them. We are all excited for next year´s trip. Hopefully, more people will come along!

Ashutosh Borikar 7N

The word of the week commencing 21st April 2015 is: Lackadaisical.

This means lacking enthusiasm and determination; carelessly lazy.

“a lackadaisical defence left Spurs adrift in the second half”

The display is produced by the student librarians.

This display can be found in our Library.

Please find below the current scores in the inter-house competition.