Congratulations to Krishan Lawrence in the Upper Sixth who was awarded Grade 8 in Classical Guitar following his Trinity Guildhall Music Examinations. This is a great achievement and counts as 45 UCAS points – especially as Krishan does not study A Level Music! Well done.
Congratulations to Abdikaliq Ige who has been selected to attend the UNIQ summer school at Oxford University in August.
This is a great opportunity for Abdi who is in year 12 . He has been selected as one of only 850 high achieving students from over 4000 applications who applied for this prestigious residential course. Abdi will be studying at one of Oxford’s colleges for a week during the summer holidays.
Abdi has been selected for the medical course which will give him a valuable insight into the medical degree at Oxford University. In order to be selected, Abdi had to write a personal statement, provide evidence of his A and A* grades at GCSE level, and have a supporting reference from the school. He follows in the footsteps of year 13 student Gurdeep Mal, who won a place at UNIQ last summer and then was subsequently offered a place on the French and Law degree at Oxford starting in September 2015.
On Friday 13 March 30 Year 7 students had the privilege to go on a trip to the NEC for the ‘Big Bang’ Science Fair. The boys that went found the trip entertaining with all the different stalls dotted around and the variety of activities on offer.
On arrival we were instantly whisked away into an amazing show called “#Error404” where we learnt about the different uses of technology and what is needed to make an explosion either fiery or loud. One of our pupils, Francis, went onto the stage to compete in an activity which involved pedalling at a certain speed (14km/h); soon after Francis completed the challenge, xenon-filled disco balls were launched into the crowd which made the crowd go wild!
When the show ended we had free time. During this free time we explored the exhibits and collected many ‘freebies’. There were a range of ‘freebies’ we could collect including pens, armbands and even a hex bug, or you could have a go at winning a Samsung tablet.
Before leaving we went to a planetarium show which presented the theories of Charles Darwin all around us. It was an amazing experience that got better and better when you were flat on the floor. The planetarium was a huge inflatable dome so you got a 360 degree view!
Hiren Chhiba
On Monday 2 March, 20 Year 10 students (along with about 2000 students from other schools) were given the privilege of going to ‘GCSE Science Live’ in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. We listened to some of the best scientists from around the world such as Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Dr Simon Singh, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Professor Lord Robert Winston and Professor Andrea Sella. We heard about time- travel and space and that it may be possible to travel through time. There was also a lecture about ‘How the zebra got its stripes’ and another in which we saw how your brain can trick you, for example into thinking you have heard something that wasn’t actually said. Overall it was a fun and educational day and we found out a lot about the scientific world around us. I think this benefitted everyone’s understanding on how far Science stretches, and perhaps it helped some students decide what they want to do and be when they are older.
Suffian Fadl-Elahi
On Thursday 19th March 45 students performed at the Annual Instrumental Evening Concert. The purpose of this event is to provide a platform for students in Year 7 and 8 to perform in a school concert. For many it was their first experience of performing in front of an audience. We enjoyed solo items from Joe Seferi and Ikhlas Sayed; a duet from Aslan Chaudhary and Phil Mortera together with a number of items from the keyboard, guitar and woodwind ensembles.
The next concert is The Young Musician of the Year 2015, which will take place on Thursday 7th May 2015 at Handsworth Grammar School.
Music Department
Just to let you all know, Ramadan, in June/July this year will make it difficult to undertake the expedition.[spacer height=”8px”] As a result, I am planning to organise the practice and qualifying expeditions in September/October instead.[spacer height=”8px”] I will let you know, as soon as the dates are agreed.[spacer height=”8px”]
Thank you,
J Stanton
HGS has enjoyed significant success on the playing fields in the last week and has collected a fine array of silverware!
The Year 11 Football team are Double Cup Winners having won both the Aston Cup and the Aston and Erdington Cup. This followed a very close match played at Bodymoor Heath which saw HGS come back from a 4 goal deficit to win 5 – 4 on penalties.
The Year 10 Football team won the Aston Cup and were runners up in the Aston and Erdington Cup in a closely fought game where perhaps a penalty should have gone our way?!
The Year 8 Football team are the top of the Aston League after a 10 – 0 win over Broadway.
The Year 9 Indoor Cricket team played very well and were runners up in the Finals of the Warwickshire Indoor Cricket League played at Edgbaston County Cricket ground.
Congratulations to all the teams above on a series of fantastic performances.
Jordan Ricketts has recently enjoyed considerable success in various Athletics events.
Jordan writes:
“On Sunday 8th March, I competed in the Regional Sports Hall West Midlands Final. I managed to get into the 4Lap final and came 5th. I then came 2nd in my Vertical Jump and finally 1st with my 4x2Lap Relay Team. I left the Regionals with a Silver medal for the Vertical Jump and a Gold medal for the Relay.
On Saturday 14th March, I competed in the Birmingham Sports Hall Final and won two Gold medals. I won my first Gold medal in 4Lap and had the best time for the season in Birmingham at 50.3seconds. My second Gold medal was won with my 4x2Lap relay team as we won every race in the season.
Finishing the Indoor Season I won 3 Gold Medals and 1 Silver medal.”
This is a fantastic achievement – well done Jordan!
Head Boy, Leopold Johnson and Deputy Head Girl, Rima Legah were special guests at the Bridge Trust Society annual dinner on Saturday 14th March.
The society is the Handsworth Grammar School Old Boys’ and Old Girls’ society and includes the Cricket Club, Football Club, Swimming/Water Polo Club and Golf Club. The event was held at Handsworth Golf Club which saw the two students as guests of the society along with Deputy Head Boy, Gurdeep Mal.
Rima gave an excellent speech about the school’s academic achievements over the last twelve months and achieved a cheer when she reported that the new Sixth Form Centre had opened in January. This was followed by ironic jeers as she said that it had been built on the site of the former Woodbine pub! Cheers also came when she announced that the school had re-started the House system which many ex pupils remember with great affection.
Leopold Johnson spoke about the school’s sporting achievements and paid particular tribute to the HGS Water Polo Club, of which he has been a member since the age of eleven, when he joined the school as a pupil. He publicly thanked Phil Swann secretary of the society and driving force behind the Water Polo Club for his work with many young people over the years. The list of the school’s sporting achievements in 2014/15 was very impressive and is a tribute to the work of the staff and the pupils who devote so much time to these extra –curricular activities.
Head of Science, Mr Peter Jones was a special guest of this year’s society President, Mr Chris Etheridge. Mr Jones has been known to generations of HGS students and he received a very warm response to his speech recalling many of the characters he has taught and worked with over twenty eight years at HGS.
Mr Conway
This academic year, all year 7 German classes have been taking part in the Foreign Language Spelling Bee, which is organised by Routes into Languages (www.flsb.co.uk).
The class competitions took place in the week before the Christmas holidays and the winners were:
7 Alfred – Iyaan Hussain, Dominik Szkatula
7 Galahad – Zain Nawaz, Jasbinderbir Singh
7 Henry – Mohammed Akif, Ayaan Yousaf
7 Nelson – Arjan Cheema, Mohammed Ibrahim
7 William – Cameron Amin, Jason Bhatti
The school competition, which was held on 13th February, was won by Jasbinderbir Singh with a fantastic 21 words per minute. The runners up were Zain Nawas (2nd place), Iyaan Hussain (3rd place) and Mohammed Akif (4th place). Congratulations!
The four school winners now have the opportunity to compete in the regional finals at Aston University on 15th April 2015. We wish them lots of luck!
