Last summer I was fortunate enough to attend the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan. I was proud to be chosen as 1 of the 36 young people from Birmingham to go on this 3 week international camp. In order to be selected I had to go through a rigorous interview process as well as raise £3,500 (of which £250 was kindly donated to me by the school). The rest of the money was raised via endless bag packing sessions at supermarkets and creative ideas like carrying out Gold D of E in fancy dress.

We departed for Japan on the 25^th of July from Birmingham airport, having said goodbye to our families we endured a 12 hour flight into Nagoya Airport. From there we travelled by coach to Okazaki where we stayed with a Japanese family for 2 days. In that short time, we visited a traditional communal bath house, visited Okazaki castle which is the birthplace of the first Shogun and we also made a visit to a local Japanese Scout group.

We then left our host families to travel to the Jamboree site on the Bullet train, the sheer speed was astonishing. When we first arrived at the campsite we found out that we had to walk 30 minutes to the other side of the campsite carrying our luggage. Our plot was effectively a field of bamboo shoots but it was soon flattened when we put up our tents. The next day all 40,000 Scouts flocked to the arena stage where the opening ceremony would take place, some of the entertainment included traditional Japanese drumming as well as J-pop. At the centre of the campsite was a massive air conditioned dome where there were always some sort of activities taking place. On one of the days a Japanese version of the sister act gave a performance. Every day we had to wake up at 4 am for food collection before the sun rose, at that time of year the sun rises at 6am and before you know it the temperature is 35 degrees. Each day had its own theme like Science where we learned about recent scientific innovations and discoveries. I was privileged to take part in an interfaith ceremony on the main stage representing the Sikh faith in front of thousands of people.

An unforgettable part of the Jamboree was when we had the opportunity to visit Hiroshima, which is where the first atomic bomb was dropped. We visited Hiroshima the day before the 70^th Anniversary.  Visiting the museum put life in perspective and made you realise the destructive potential of one of these bombs.

We packed up our tents and once again boarded the Bullet train but this time bound for Tokyo, one of the world’s megacities. The city itself was just vast, our hotel room reminded us of this every time we looked out the window over the Tokyo skyline. We visited the main tourist attractions in Tokyo like the “Tokyo Sky Tree” as well as “Electric City” which is the equivalent to Times Square.

Then our journey was over, making friends from all over the world, learning about many new cultures and traditions and developing me as a member of society. It was an unforgettable experience.

Taran Bedi

Every day people in the UK go hungry for reasons ranging from redundancy to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income. Trussell Trust Foodbanks provide a minimum of three days emergency food and support to people experiencing crisis in the UK and specifically in Birmingham.

13 million people live below the poverty line in the UK.

In 2014-15 foodbanks fed 1,084,604 people nationwide. Of those helped, 396,997 were children.

At HGS we can do something to help, If every student in the school brings in just one item we will be able to donate more than a 1,000 items to the Trussell Trust’s FoodBank in Birmingham.

Tins and packets are the best items to donate. Please see the list below for ideas about what to donate.

Milk (UHT or powdered)
Sugar (500g)
Fruit juice (carton)
Soup
Pasta sauces
Sponge pudding (tinned)
Tomatoes (tinned)
Cereals
Rice pudding (tinned)
Tea Bags/instant coffee
Instant mash potato
Rice/pasta
Tinned meat/fish
Tinned fruit
Jam
Biscuits or snack bars

Please bring your donations to your Form Tutor or to Ms Brown in Room 3.

On Thursday 3 December we were very pleased to welcome to HGS Dr Maria Pavlidou from Birmingham University’s Physics Department.  Dr Pavlidou gave two talks, each to 30 Year 9 students, about the extremes of temperature.  Her engaging talks were accompanied by exciting demonstrations, some including the ever-popular liquid nitrogen!  Our students appreciated very much this opportunity, and evidenced their interest through the high-level questions that many of them asked.

Mr Jones, Head of Science

Dr Felderhof of SACRE (Standing Council for Religious Education) recently visited Handsworth Grammar School as part of the process of auditing current Religious Education and Collective Worship provision across all Birmingham Schools. Dr Felderhof attended a Year 8 Assembly, observed a Year 9 lesson and had a detailed meeting with Mr Bird and Mrs Donoghue. The feedback received which will form part of a wider report across the whole of Birmingham schools was very positive indeed. It detailed that Handsworth Grammar School provides excellent provision in all areas relating to Religious Education and Collective Worship. It stated that there is a hardworking and inclusive atmosphere in HGS which sought to ensure that all students were stretched and performed at their best as well as there being excellent pastoral support and a good emphasis on the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development of the students. The lesson observed was graded as Outstanding.

This is a an excellent reflection on the hard work and commitment of all our staff to ensure that all our students are well educated, tolerant, compassionate and well-rounded young people who are a force for good in the community.

The Fischer Family Trust (FFT) have recently published the performance data for Secondary schools across the UK. This data demonstrates the amount of Progress achieved across all subject and groups within a school. Please click on the two links below to view the Progress data for HGS as well as an explanation as to how the process of Progress 8 works in practice.

HGS Progress 8 Summary

2015 KS4 FFT Dashboard